"Foot" is a poetic monologue told through the voice of a Palestinian soccer player who tells us about the impossible path of his team to qualify for the World Cup. A road filled with military checkpoints, exile, corruption and death.

A huge concrete wall covered with barbed wire separates families, villages and towns, isolating the Palestinians from each other. In the middle of this wasteland, a soccer ball appears and the story of a Palestinian soccer player is told. Throughout this chronicle, graffiti will be projected onto the wall, vindicating the subculture of resistance that has emerged in protest against colonial occupation, cruelly established for more than seven decades. The narration is also supported by milestone dates which contribute to contextualizing the conflict that the football player tells us about.  

Behind the actor’s voice transcends the passion of so many young people trapped in a cage put in place by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian citizens.

Actor: Nourdin Batan. Playwright: Ismail Khalidi. Translation: Carolina Muñoz Proto. Directed by: Samy Khalil. Director’s assistant: Andoni Larrabeiti. Set design: Christina Eleftheriadou. Video design: Alba Trapero. Lighting: Óscar Fernández. Wardrobe: Conchi Marro. Photography: Paul Rodríguez. Distribution: Nuria Chacón.

Ismail Khalidi, playwright.
Born in Beirut to Palestinian parents and raised in Chicago, Ismail Khalidi is a playwright and director who has written, directed, performed and taught internationally. Khalidi’s works include "Tennis in Nablus" (Alliance Theatre, 2010), "Truth Serum Blues" (Pangea World Theatre, 2005), "Foot" (Teatro Amal, 2016-17), "Sabra Falling" (Pangea World Theatre, 2017), "Returning to Haifa" (Finborough Theatre) , 2018) and "Dead Are My People" (Noor Theatre, 2019). Khalidi’s plays have been published in numerous anthologies. His writings about politics and culture have been published in The Nation, Guernica, American Theatre Magazine and Remezcla. He holds an Master’s degree in playwriting from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Samy Khalil, director.
Born and raised in Madrid to a Palestinian father and a mother from the region of Asturias, Samy Khalil is a theater and television actor who has participated in various audiovisual and theatrical productions both in Spain and abroad. He began his career with a company known as La Joven Compañía, directed by José Luis Arellano, in which he acted in over 500 plays both in Madrid and on national tour. His most notable works include "Fuenteovejuna" (Lope de Vega, 2012 and 2015), "The Lord of the Flies" (William Golding, 2013/2014), and "The Aeneid" (Virgil, 2021 and 2022), the last of these leading to his nomination as Best Theatrical Actor at the MAX Theater Awards (2022). He has also played roles in works put on by the Centro Dramático Nacional (CDN), including "Dentro de la tierra" (Luis Luque, 2017) and "Los últimos Gondra" (Josep María Mestres, 2022). On television, he has worked on series like "El Príncipe" (Mediaset, 2014), "Los Nuestros 2" (Mediaset, 2018), "El Cid" (Amazon Prime, 2019) and "Eva y Nicole" (Atresplayer, 2024). His involvement not only with the Palestinian cause, but also with our country’s theater world and culture, make Foot his first formal and official challenge within the field of artistic direction.

Nourdin Batan, actor.
Every since he worked in the series "El Príncipe", filmed in the same neighborhood of Ceuta where his mother is from, he realized that he wanted to become an actor. Otherwise, though, “I’d be a politician,” he says. Nourdin, ‘Nunu’ to his friends, defines himself as a simple, hard-working guy. An admirer of Tahar Rahim and lover of offbeat cinema and rap, he loyally defends the idea that “practice makes perfect.” Although he has played roles in productions like 30 Monedas and "La Unidad", he saw his first success in the series "HIT" (2020). In film, his long-awaited debut occurred in 2018, when Iranian director Asghar Farhadi signed him on for "Todos lo saben" (Everybody Knows), starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. Since then, Nourdin’s name has been seen in movie casts, including films like "El buen patrón" (The Good Boss, Fernando León de Aranoa, 2021) and, more recently, "Todos los nombres de Dios" (All of God’s Names), a thriller directed by Calparsoro, in which he stars alongside an actor whom he greatly admires, Luis Tosar. He is now appearing with both once again in "El correo", a suspense film set at the turn of the century.