Ilham Anas, 34, Indonesian, is a celebrity in Asia because of his resemblance to the American president. © AP Photo
Ilham Anas, 34, Indonesian, is a celebrity in Asia because of his resemblance to the American president. © AP Photo

Obama has a lookalike in Indonesia

  Between Two Journeys

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text: 

After Obama's Indonesian schoolthe Indonesian look-alike of Obama! The man is called Ilham Anas, he is 34 years old, and works as a photographer for a magazine in Jakarta. His resemblance with the new American president opens new career opportunities for him, but as a model, in advertising.

Ilham Anas, 34, Indonesian, is a celebrity in Asia because of his resemblance to the American president. © AP Photo
Ilham Anas, 34, Indonesian, is a celebrity in Asia because of his resemblance to the American president. © AP Photo

Obama photo © AFP photo"When Obama was elected, my colleagues wanted to joke and made me wear a suit and tie and took pictures of me posing as Obama, says Ilham Anas. The photos spread very quickly on the internet. It was phenomenal. I was then contacted by TV stations and an advertising agency."

And it's true that with the right suit and a big smile, the resemblance is more than striking!

Ilham Anas has already shot a TV ad for a drug in the Philippines and has received proposals in South Korea and Indonesia ... "I will take every opportunity that comes my way, as long as it does not violate ethics and respects my values", says the look-alike.

Hmm ... That's pretty gag, this Filipino Filipino commercial (video below).


😂

Still, the new American president is very popular in Indonesia, where he lived a few years during his childhood. His mother remarried an Indonesian man after divorcing Barack Obama's Kenyan father.

The 44th U.S. president said he would give a major speech in a Muslim capital shortly after his inauguration... Jakarta? Everyone agrees on that.

America's new openness to the world, reaffirmed by Obama during his speech last night at the Washington ceremony, is in any case a source of immense hope, from the West to the East, from the North to the South.

As for the Indonesian look-alike, he is preparing a good career. Surely, it's better to look like Barack Obama, than to end up in the gallery of Totally Looks Like

--

Sources: AFP, Reuters, Le Monde.
More photos of the Obama lookalike on: FoxNews.com

• • • • • • • • • •
ADD: I found tonight two other look-alikes, or who try to be, much less convincing than the Indonesian...
→ A Cuban look-alike: http://expresse.excite.fr/news/1728/Le-sosie-cubain-dObama
→ A Japanese lookalike (he's a comedian, this one): http://videos.nouvelobs.com/video/iLyROoafYdpI.html

  Between Two Journeys

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  1. @ Akimicraft: It also depends on the angle of the shot. I've also seen photos of the "original" and the lookalike placed side by side, with exactly the same pose, the same lighting, the same expression... Here, it even becomes unsettling. 😯

    @ Ceucidit: A Michelle look-alike? It's got to be possible to find it!!! 🙄

  2. It's so funny, especially the ad... I wonder what the jokes will be like when Obama's many fans realize that he's only human and won't be able to work miracles... it's going to be a real sport!

  3. Good evening Cédric!

    Indeed, this flowering of look-alikes is quite comical. I laughed out loud at this Philippine ad.

    Obama is nonetheless a powerful symbol of a change of era, after the Bush administration. But the hope he raises is so great that the disappointment is likely to be on the same scale...

  4. When I was in West Papua, a province of Indonesia, there were elections which, as in all Asian countries, were the occasion for a debauchery of banners and billboards to the glory of the countless candidates (being a politician is obviously a very popular profession...).
    In Sorong, one of the province's "important" cities, there was a candidate who put Obama on his poster 😯

    © Photo Alimata.fr

    Just goes to show, even in one of the most remote corners of Indonesia and the planet, the Obama phenomenon is present ❗

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