Karim Kassem Broaches Migrant Issues in Lebanon With ‘Pipes’: ‘A Lot of People Are Being Affected by War but We Don’t See the Whole Picture’

Lebanese director Karim Kassem remains one of the most prolific directors in the MENA region despite the sociopolitical instability of his home country of Lebanon. “Pipes,” having its world premiere as part of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s prestigious Crystal Globe Competition, is the director’s fifth film in five years, following highly praised works like the IDFA-winning “Octopus.”

“Pipes” marks a spinoff of sorts for the young director, who expands on the story of a small supporting character from his 2024 drama “Moondove.” That character is Hassan (Ghassan Saad), who, despite having retired from his job at the water authority, can’t 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’s death may not have been an accident after all. 

Related Stories

CAPE Announces 2026 Emerging Executives Committee

Speaking with Variety ahead of the film’s world premiere, Kassem says he kept getting messages from audience members pleading with him to extend Hassan’s story after “Moondove.” That felt a natural next project for the director, who was already tinkering with the possibility of reuniting with Saad and the village.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fiction film come out of a village with an ensemble of non-actors like this,” he says. “I 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.”

Kassem says “Pipes” gave him the “opportunity 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’re migrants.” 

Hassan’s 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 “great at talking politics” but can’t help but broach the issues that surround him in his work. “I worked with news, and my dad is a news producer, so news have been around me almost all my life. You can’t escape it when you’re from Lebanon, with all the constant wars that have been undergoing since before I was born.”

“Maybe I’m 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,” he notes. “I 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.”

The 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 “we have an invasion going on, ethnic cleansing, and I think it’s mostly because of water, which is the source of life.”

“I think a lot of people are being affected by war, but we don’t often see the whole picture,” he continues. “As 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’s what I’m good at, so I’ll stick to that.”

As for how he remains so prolific despite the many difficulties plaguing film production in the MENA region, the director says it’s due to “a combination of being determined and having technical knowledge.” 

“I am also a cinematographer, so I know how to shoot things, which helps with preparation,” he goes on. “When 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.”

Prodded on how the support of burgeoning MENA funds has helped his career, Kassem says “the 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’re going to get because when a jury sits in front of the film, they’re watching it instead of relying on an idea.”

Kassem says that, without the support of bodies like the Doha Film Institute, it would have been “almost impossible” for him to complete his films at this pace. “I wouldn’t 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’t wait around.”

“I think more funds should open in the region,” adds the director, emphasizing that he believes MENA funds should focus on local talent instead of widening their scope. “There are a lot of people here who deserve to be funded but aren’t. I don’t want to be the exception.”