Fadi Yousef

Fadi Yousef is a Lebanese actor best known for his one major film role: playing Selim in Capernaum, a 2018 drama that has become the highest-grossing Arabic and Middle-Eastern film ever made. Yousef played the father of the film’s protagonist, Zain El Hajj (played by Zain Al Rafeea), a 12-year-old boy who grows up in the Beirut slums and attempts to sue his parents for neglect. The film won awards from film festivals all over the world when it was released and became a huge surprise hit in China where it grossed over $54 million at the box office. It was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film.

The success of Capernaum was a major bonus for Yousef, whose sole prior film role had been an unnamed part in a 2000 short film called The Football Pitch. Beyond that, Yousef prefers to let his acting do the talking, and has little, if any presence on social media. However, he has certainly made his mark on the world of Lebanese, Arabic, and Middle Eastern cinema.