NAHNOU FIL DAKHEL – WE ARE INSIDE
Farah Kassem | Lebanon, Qatar, Denmark 2024 | 180 min. | Arabic with engl. subtitles
TUESDAY, 13.05. | 4:30 pm
De France, Saal 1 | TICKETS
Austrian premiere
In presence of Farah Kassem


After more than a decade’s absence, Farah returns to Tripoli to look after her ageing, widowed father. The political crisis in Lebanon has also reached their city. But there is a secret sanctuary: Mustapha’s weekly poetry club, where a small group of men gather to exchange poems in classical Arabic over sweets and in heated verbal battles. Farah decides to join the club. When Mustapha’s health deteriorates and a nationwide uprising breaks out, poetry becomes their chance for one last dialogue.
With much humour and empathy, NAHNOU FIL DAKHEL tells the story of a special father-daughter relationship and their escape into the healing world of poetry in a country full of chaos.
Director: Farah Kassem
Camera: Tebbe Schöningh
Editing: Anders Jepsen
Sound: Joelle Abou Chabké (Sound recording), Cedric Kayem (Sound Mixing)
Production: Producer: Cynthia Choucair / Road2Films, Co-producers: Patricia Drati / Good Company Pictures, Mehdi Bekkar / Al Jazeera Documentary
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Visions du Réel International Competition 2024 (Switzerland) – Special Mention
El Gouna Film Festival 2024 (Egypt) – Golden Star for Best Feature Documentary and NETPAC Award for Best Asian Feature Film.
Golden Apricot International Film Festival 2024 (Armenia) -Golden Apricot for Best Regional Film.
Kasseler Dokfest 2024 (Germany) – Honorary Mention.
Entrevue Belfort 2024 (France) – Audience Award and Tënk / Documentaire Sur Grand Écran Award.
Mar del Plata 2024 (Argentina) – Astor Piazzolla Award for Best Film.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Tripoli, Lebanon, Farah Kassem graduated from ALBA University with a Bachelor’s degree in Audio Visual Studies and completed a Masters of Fine Arts in documentary film-making at DocNomads. Farah is both a director and an editor and is currently doing doctoral research in the Arts at KU Leuven and LUCA in Belgium. She is also a film workshop trainer. She has directed several award wining short documentary films that have screened at various international film festivals including Visions du Réel, Warsaw Film Festival, DOK Leipzig, Dubai International Film Festival, and many others. We Are Inside is her debut feature.