فهمت (Fahimt)

A queer Arab woman, a white male cop and an interpreter. Between question and answer, one language and another, stands the truth, confused.
The cop has questions: Who are you? Where are you from? Do you understand me?
The woman has questions: Am I the victim or the perpetrator? Why am I here? Do you understand me?

What happens when the only person who understands becomes a hurdle to reaching the truth?

This English-Arabic bilingual work is developed by interpreter and community organiser Mikhael Touma and theatre-maker Blake Hohenhaus, in consultation and collaboration with local queer Arab community members. فهمت (Fahimt) dramatises the lived realities of forcibly-displaced queer people and reveals how, whilst navigating systems of power, they undertake their journeys of belonging in those fragile, obscure spaces between languages.

Writers: Mikhael Touma and Blake Hohenhaus

Director: Blake Hohenhaus

Cast includes: Mikhael Touma and Ayat Alhakim

Sound Designer and Composer: Eugene Beissel

Hero Image Photographer: Darren Gill