Zain Al Rafeea was born in 2004 in Daraa, Syria, and is the second of four children. He has been deprived of his right to education since the Daraa clashes in 2012. It was at this time that the situation in his homeland became so unbearable that it caused his family to pack up their lives and leave for Lebanon. Since the age of ten, he has worked a number of temporary jobs, such as supermarket deliveries. His real passion is raising pigeons, and his dream is to open a pigeon shop. In 2016, he was noticed among a group of kids in his Beirut neighborhood by Capharnaüm’s casting director, who immediately saw in him what director Nadine Labaki was looking for.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
