Zain Al Rafeea


Zain Al Rafeea is a Syrian-born actor. He is best known for his starring role in the 2018 Lebanese film Capernaum, which won the Jury Prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

Life and career

Al Rafeea was born in Daraa, Syria in 2004 before his family moved to Lebanon in 2012. A Syrian refugee, he grew up in the slums of Beirut with his parents. He was 12 and illiterate during the production of Capernaum. He was not trained as an actor. Al Rafeea's Capernaum character, Zain, is named for him.
In November 2018, director Nadine Labaki reported Al Rafeea's situation had changed: Al Rafeea began attending school in Hammerfest.
For Capernaum, Al Rafeea was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actor. He also won Best Actor at the 2018 International Antalya Film Festival. The New York Times named his as one of the best performances of 2018, with reporter Wesley Morris writing, "Every once in a while, you leave a movie having seen a performance that mocks all the other acting that came before it". James Verniere of the Boston Herald described Al Rafeea as "part Oliver Twist, part James Dean".
He recently joined the cast of The Eternals which is part of the highly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.

Filmography

Awards and nominations