{"id":3750,"date":"2026-07-08T05:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T05:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3750"},"modified":"2026-07-08T05:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T05:37:22","slug":"karim-kassem-broaches-migrant-issues-in-lebanon-with-pipes-a-lot-of-people-are-being-affected-by-war-but-we-dont-see-the-whole-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3750","title":{"rendered":"Karim Kassem Broaches Migrant Issues in Lebanon With \u2018Pipes\u2019: \u2018A Lot of People Are Being Affected by War but We Don\u2019t See the Whole Picture\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tLebanese director Karim Kassem remains one of the most prolific directors in the MENA region despite the sociopolitical instability of his home country of Lebanon. \u201cPipes,\u201d having its world premiere as part of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival\u2019s prestigious Crystal Globe Competition, is the director\u2019s fifth film in five years, following highly praised works like the IDFA-winning \u201cOctopus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3748\">Disney and Luxury Fashion Brand Ganni Continue Partnership With Daisy Duck Collection (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cPipes\u201d marks a spinoff of sorts for the young director, who expands on the story of a small supporting character from his 2024 drama \u201cMoondove.\u201d That character is Hassan (Ghassan Saad), who, despite having retired from his job at the water authority, can\u2019t stop lending a helping hand to his neighbors in a small Lebanese village. This inability to say no leaves Hassan with very little time to mourn the recent loss of a close friend, the matter made even graver when the villager discovers his friend\u2019s death may not have been an accident after all.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSpeaking with <em>Variety <\/em>ahead of the film\u2019s world premiere, Kassem says he kept getting messages from audience members pleading with him to extend Hassan\u2019s story after \u201cMoondove.\u201d That felt a natural next project for the director, who was already tinkering with the possibility of reuniting with Saad and the village.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen a fiction film come out of a village with an ensemble of non-actors like this,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to properly explore the village, to get villagers to act in the film. With Hassan, his character allowed us to move through the village with his car, and there was so much humor in his world, which I wanted to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tKassem says \u201cPipes\u201d gave him the \u201copportunity to really dig deep into the nuances of the troubles this village is going through daily, the water issues and also the migrant issue, where you have people disappearing but no one asks about them because they\u2019re migrants.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tHassan\u2019s late friend in the film is a migrant worker, with the subject prodded with great nuance and carefully constructed dialogue. This is a signature trait of the director, who claims he might not be \u201cgreat at talking politics\u201d but can\u2019t help but broach the issues that surround him in his work. \u201cI worked with news, and my dad is a news producer, so news have been around me almost all my life. You can\u2019t escape it when you\u2019re from Lebanon, with all the constant wars that have been undergoing since before I was born.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cMaybe I\u2019m not very good at making headway on political films because it is not my area of expertise, but because I have a Philosophical Studies background, I have an inclination towards making the kind of cinema where I might ask the same questions but maybe from a back door,\u201d he notes. \u201cI generally start from a larger question, such as what is the meaning of life, which is ultimately what starts the film, and then go towards the other themes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe director points out how his last two films have focused on water, a subject he kept thinking about as war surrounded his home. He notes how water has long led to conflict in human history, adding \u201cwe have an invasion going on, ethnic cleansing, and I think it\u2019s mostly because of water, which is the source of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3745\">Anne Hathaway \u2018Spent a Week\u2019 Prepping for Harley Quinn Before \u2018Dark Knight Rises\u2019 Meeting; Nolan Didn\u2019t Reveal Catwoman Until Two Hours Into Their Chat<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI think a lot of people are being affected by war, but we don\u2019t often see the whole picture,\u201d he continues. \u201cAs a filmmaker, I want to look at things that might not have been looked at, to make something that might look like one thing but changes. It\u2019s what I\u2019m good at, so I\u2019ll stick to that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAs for how he remains so prolific despite the many difficulties plaguing film production in the MENA region, the director says it\u2019s due to \u201ca combination of being determined and having technical knowledge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI am also a cinematographer, so I know how to shoot things, which helps with preparation,\u201d he goes on. \u201cWhen I am writing, I am also writing as a producer. When I write a scene, I know exactly how much it is going to cost. Consistent funding from mostly MENA funds also allowed me to move at this pace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tProdded on how the support of burgeoning MENA funds has helped his career, Kassem says \u201cthe secret recipe is shooting the films for very little, do development and production for very little, and then bank on post-production, which is the most guaranteed fund you\u2019re going to get because when a jury sits in front of the film, they\u2019re watching it instead of relying on an idea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tKassem says that, without the support of bodies like the Doha Film Institute, it would have been \u201calmost impossible\u201d for him to complete his films at this pace. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have made five films in five years because the funding in Europe takes way more time. Usually, you need a co-producer, and it takes eight months just to find out about a pre-selection. I couldn\u2019t wait around.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI think more funds should open in the region,\u201d adds the director, emphasizing that he believes MENA funds should focus on local talent instead of widening their scope. \u201cThere are a lot of people here who deserve to be funded but aren\u2019t. I don\u2019t want to be the exception.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=3743\">\u2018Selamlik\u2019 Wins Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Karlovy Vary Film Festival<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Pipes&#8217; director Karim Kassem discusses making a subtle political film amidst Lebanon war, credits burgeoning MENA film funds with prolific output.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3078,1150],"class_list":["post-3750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-karim-kassem","tag-karlovy-vary-film-festival"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Karim Kassem Broaches Migrant Issues in Lebanon With \u2018Pipes\u2019: \u2018A Lot of People Are Being Affected by War but We Don\u2019t See the Whole Picture\u2019 - 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