Rashif El Kaoui is a multi-talented artist. He graduated in 2014 at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp with the title Master in Word Art and since then has been an actor, teacher, rapper, audio-maker and writer. In 2016 he won the El Hizjra Literature Prize in the prose category with Madame Assorti, a masterfully structured, mysterious and musical story. Rashif navigated the space between his mother’s Flemish culture and his father’s Moroccan culture, always being aware of both sides, which made him, in his own words, a real diplomat.

Now he is working on De Man is Lam (loose translation: Man is meek) together with actor Lucas De Man and photographer Ahmet Polat. It’s a project about what it is like to be a man today. The three makers went on a men’s emancipation course as well as a ‘discover your inner primal man’ workshop. They spoke to scientists in the fields of religion, fatherhood, aggression, vulnerability, women, sex and intimacy. They held meetings with friends as well as strangers to discuss the world and people. They visited biker clubs and father centres and they revealed their innermost selves more than once. The eponymous podcast can be heard on VPRO’s Nooit Meer Slapen.