Mouna Soualem

Mouna Soualem is a French film and television actress.

Early life and education Soualem is the daughter of actors Hiam Abbas and Zinedine Soualem She is of Palestinian descent on her mother's side and Algerian descent on her father's. Her maternal grandmother and great-grandmother were displaced from Tiberias during the Nakba. Soualem's mother would speak Palestinian Arabic at home, and the family regularly holidayed in Auvergne and Palestine.

After obtaining her baccalaureate, Soualem studied for a degree in cinema at the University of Paris 8 and trained at the Conservatoire du 5 arrondissement in Paris.

Career Soualem made her acting debut in Steven Spielberg's Munich (2005), in which her mother also appeared in a minor role. In 2012, she starred alongside her sister Lina in their mother's feature directorial debut Inheritance.

In 2022, she played the role of Sarah Oussekine in the Disney+ miniseries Oussekine, centering on the killing of Malik Oussekine. For her performance, she was awarded Best Actress at the 2022 ACS Awards. That same year, she starred in Dominik Moll's César-winning The Night of the 12th, which screened in the Cannes Premiere section at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

In 2023, she performed in New York in Broken Theater, a dance-theater production directed by Bobbi Jene Smith.

In 2024, she had a small role in The Last Breath, directed by Costa-Gavras.

In April 2025, she appeared in the Canal+ series Cimetière indien, starring in the lead role of Lidia Achour, a young police officer in an anti-terrorism squad who is sent to investigate the scalping of an imam near Marseille. The 8-episode series, directed by Stéphane Demoustier and Farid Bentoumi, takes place in 1995 and 2024 and touches on the legacy of the Algerian War and Algerian Civil War. Soualem also appeared in Hafsia Herzi's The Little Sister, which was screened in the main competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 2005 Munich Amina Hamshari 2008 One Day You'll Understand Esther 2012 Inheritance Lana 2013 Taxi Dancer Short 2019 You Deserve a Lover Mouna Amal Short 2020 Aviva Briana 2021 You Resemble Me Adult Hasna #1 2022 The Night of the 12th Nadia Hawawshi Farida Short 2024 The Last Breath Nurse 2025 How Are You? Rabbit (voice) Short The Little Sister Cassandra Colours of Time Fille AbdelkrimThe Site Nour

Television Year Title Role Notes 2022 Oussekine Sarah Oussekine Miniseries 2023 Le Horla Nadia TV movie The Turkish Detective Omer / Leah 2 episodes 2025 Cimetière indien Lidia Achour 8 episodes

Awards and nominations + Year Award Category Work Result 2022 Series Mania Révélations Actrice Oussekine ACS Awards Best Actress (shared with Ariane Labed for L'Opéra)