From War in Syria to Cannes and Oscars’ Red Carpets

Smiling shyly in front of a packed Cannes Film Festival audience, 13-year-old Syrian refugee Zain Al Rafeaa soaked up the applause of movie stars and film industry luminaries. “I felt paralyzed, totally paralyzed,” he said.

Zain was attending Cannes for the leading role he played in the movie  “Capharnaum”, which won the Grand Jury Prize. He attended the Oscars too, for which Capharnaum, shown in Hong Kong during March, was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film.

Only seven when he fled Daraa in Syria for Lebanon with his family, Zain drew on his refugee experience to play Capharnaum’s undocumented boy living in one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Beirut, Lebanon. But Zain’s own story is taking a turn; with the support of UNHCR, he is soon leaving Lebanon for resettlement to Norway. “There, I will be able to go to school and learn how to read and write,” he brims.