Mathijs Poppe

Filmmaker Mathijs Poppe (Belgium, 1990) developed close ties with the Palestinian community in Lebanon since his first visit to the Shatila refugee camp in 2008. In 2017, he graduated from the KASK School of Arts and gained acclaim for his graduation film, Ours is a Country of Words, filmed in Shatila. For his first feature film, The Jacket (2024), Poppe continued his collaboration with the Palestinian actor Jamal Hindawi and his family. Both films delicately tread the thin line between documentary and fiction.

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Ours is a Country of Words

Mathijs Poppe, Belgium, Lebanon, 2017, 42’

Filmed in Shatila, a refugee camp built in Lebanon when thousands of Palestinians fled their country in 1948. At an undetermined moment in the future, the refugees’ dream of returning to Palestine becomes a reality.