After years abroad, Farah Kassem returns home to Tripoli, Lebanon, to care for her aging father — a wily old man whose blunt humor and honesty are shared not only with his daughter, but with the fellow charming-yet-crotchety members of his all-male poetry club. As chaos engulfs the city around them, father and daughter struggle to find common ground in discussions of ghosts past, present and future. He is, after all, from a different era, and his rigid approach to the classical form of Arabic poetry mirrors his broader worldview and the life he wants for his daughter. Farah, though, sees her own poetry as a potential olive branch and joins the group. Lensed by Kassem herself with an unwavering formal commitment, WE ARE INSIDE creates an intimate visual space, its duration slowly unfolding new meanings. It invites the viewer to consider the beauty, complexity and scope of everyday interactions and how those moments of connection — or disconnection — speak to struggles beyond our home walls, a world plunged into unrest and upheaval. 

- Daniel Christian