Two lifelong friends from Syria, Qusay and Nabil, living in exile, are at the center of Why Do I See You in Everything?, the debut feature film from writer-director Rand Abou Fakher, which will get its world premiere on Feb. 1 in the Bright Future lineup of the 55th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).
The Syrian filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist based in Brussels has previously explored such themes as memory, displacement and intimacy in her short films, namely Braided Love (2018), which premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and So We Live (2020), which debuted at Berlinale Shorts.
Fakher’s first feature is a hybrid film that takes audiences through dreams, archival footage and present-day events to dive into the shared history of the two friends. “They trace a shared history of resistance, from marching alongside each other in the Syrian revolution at 16 and, years later, taking to the streets of Berlin to demand justice for Palestine,” reads a synopsis for Why Do I See You in Everything? “When the Assad regime falls, only Nabil is able to travel home. There, he encounters a precarious new order, where danger still looms.”
Olive trees are a recurring visual theme, serving as “witnesses to real violence endured through uprooting, theft, and burning of the trees, and to imagined landscapes of solace,” notes a synopsis.
The film puts a spotlight on a cocoon of intimacy to counter the violence of the world, showing “care and tenderness as radical forms of resistance,” as the IFFR website notes.
Why Do I See You in Everything?, produced by Fakher and Rosa Galguera Ortega for Belgium’s Hilife Cinematography, features Qusay Awad and Nabil Altawil, who co-created the movie with the director. It is supported by VAF (Flemish Audiovisual Fund) and AFAC – Arab Funds for Arts and Culture. Hans Bruch handled the cinematography for the film, for which Hilife is handling sales.
“In this film, I really wanted to show the experience of being displaced,” Fakher tells THR. “And I wanted to explore how the present is linked to the past and to the future, and how dream and imagination and memory become one.”
In a director’s statement, the filmmaker also shares: “This film was born from both grief and hope, at a time when death had become almost ordinary. I wanted to understand not only how violence happens, but how it comes to feel acceptable, even inevitable. Patriarchal systems continue to define masculinity through violence, turning tenderness into something unfamiliar and suspect.”
Through the film, “I wanted to create space for two Arab men to reclaim their own bodies and to show vulnerability, affection, and care,” Fakher explains. “Their gentleness stands in stark contrast to the structures of control and fear that surround them. The film observes how power repeats itself, taking different shapes yet following the same logic. It asks what we accept as normal – and what it would take to unlearn those distortions. Above all, it wonders how we can hold on to hope without turning away from pain.”
Now, THR can premiere a trailer for the film that provides a first impression of what awaits audiences. Check out the trailer for Why Do I See You in Everything? here.
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