Private Project

La casquette (The hat)

Hadi stares at the camera and begins to get dressed. As he prepares himself, he expresses his thoughts on the current situation, how much discrimination and amalgams weigh on him, he who wears the double stigmatizing hat of gay & Arab. What to do with this weight?

  • Hadi Moussally
    Director
  • Hadi Moussally
    Producer
  • Olivier Pagny
    Producer
  • Hadi Moussally
    Key Cast
  • Olivier Pagny
    DOP & Post-production
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    La casquette
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 26 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 15, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    Lebanon
  • Country of Filming:
    France
  • Language:
    French
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    17:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Queer Shorts Vienna 2025
    Vienna
    Austria
    February 26, 2026
  • Pink Screens Film Festival 2025
    Bruxelles
    Belgium
    October 31, 2025
  • Festival du Film d'Éducation à la Vie Affective et Sexuelle 2025
    Amiens
    France
    May 27, 2025
  • Soura Film Festival 2025
    Lisbon
    Portugal
    May 23, 2025
  • Aks International Minorities Festival, Film – Art – Dialogue 2024
    København
    Denmark
    October 11, 2024
  • QUEERSICHT queer film festival 2024
    Bern
    Switzerland
    November 7, 2024
  • MIX COPENHAGEN 2024
    Copenhagen
    Denmark
    October 25, 2024
  • Amnesty International "Au Cinéma pour les Droits Humains" 2024

    France
    March 31, 2024
  • ANDALESGAI 2024
    Sevilla
    Spain
    March 9, 2024
  • Pink Life QueerFest 2024
    Ankara
    Turkey
    February 23, 2024
  • La mida no importa-Size doesn't matter 2024
    Barcelona
    Spain
    January 27, 2024
  • International queer film festival Merlinka 2023
    Belgrade
    Serbia
    December 7, 2023
  • Lebanese Film Festival of France 2023
    Paris
    France
    November 24, 2023
  • FanCineQueer 2023
    Badajoz
    Spain
    November 10, 2023
  • Les Instants Video 2023
    Marseille
    France
    October 19, 2023
  • Petit Plan: Europa IV 2023
    Athens
    Greece
    October 16, 2023
  • Tels Quels 2023
    Brussels
    Belgium
    October 9, 2023
  • Everybody's Perfect 2023
    Geneva
    Switzerland
    October 6, 2023
  • Twin Cities Arab Film Festival 2023
    Minnesota
    United States
    September 30, 2023
  • Queer Wave 2023

    Cyprus
    September 8, 2023
  • (In) visible structure (s) 2023
    Berlin
    Germany
    September 16, 2023
  • One Fluid Night 2023
    London
    United Kingdom
    September 8, 2023
  • The Atlanta Black Pride LGBTQ International Film Festival 2023
    Atlanta
    United States
    September 1, 2023
  • International Short Film Festival Detmold 2023
    Detmold
    Germany
    August 25, 2023
  • Queer & Pride : Kriterion x Canvas 2023
    Amsterdam
    Netherlands
    August 1, 2023
  • Last Frame Queer Fest 2023
    London
    United Kingdom
    July 6, 2023
  • Lebanese Film Festival of France 2023
    Paris
    France
    July 6, 2023
  • Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival 2023
    Calgary
    Canada
    June 9, 2023
  • FIRE!!, Barcelona LBGT Film Festival 2023
    Barcelona
    Spain
    June 8, 2023
  • Out & Loud - Pune International Queer Film Festival 2023
    Pune
    India
    May 25, 2023
  • Festival Politica 2023
    Lisbon
    Portugal
    April 21, 2023
  • PRIDEFILM.online 2023
    Online
    April 22, 2023
    Honorable Mention
  • Divine Queer Film Festival 2023
    Torino
    Italy
    April 14, 2023
  • Bendigo Queer Film Festival 2023
    Bendigo
    Australia
    March 19, 2023
  • The International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) 2023
    Montreal
    Canada
    March 14, 2023
  • La fête du court métrage 2023

    France
    March 15, 2023
  • Queer East Midlands Film Festival 2023
    Loughborough
    United Kingdom
    February 23, 2023
  • Arab World Institute - Habibi, les révolutions de l'amour
    Paris
    France
    February 15, 2023
  • Image + Nation 2022
    Montreal
    Canada
    November 19, 2022
  • Chéries-Chéris 2022
    Paris
    France
    November 18, 2022
  • Flip the Script 2022
    Online
    United States
    October 7, 2022
  • Arab World Institute - Filme ton quartier - screening on France TV
    Paris
    France
    October 5, 2022
    Winner
  • Luststreifen 2022
    Basel
    Switzerland
    October 1, 2022
  • Soura Film Festival 2022
    Berlin
    Germany
    September 29, 2022
  • Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest 2022
    London
    United Kingdom
    September 25, 2022
Director Biography - Hadi Moussally

Hadi Moussally was born in Lebanon in 1987.
By age 18, he decides to go study film direction in France where he acquires a first master’s degree in “Fiction Cinema” from Paris-Est Marne la Vallée University. Moussally then chooses to take on a complementary masters in “Documentary and Anthropological Cinema” from Paris X Nanterre University, in the course of Jean Rouch. In that respect, Hadi Moussally acquainted himself with reality-cinema. The anthropological and documentary approach accustoms him with the sense of keen observation of his subjects and alerts him to the importance of instantaneous shooting; whereas his fictional background gives him the urge of creating sensual, esthetically pleasing imagery universes.
From 2012, Hadi Moussally shifts towards the world of fashion and directs several experimental films some of which received various distinctions in festivals. In 2014 he made his first documentary on the end of his grandmother's life, and in 2016 a docu-portrait on a senior model. In 2018 he completed an experimental project on albinism "Positive" whose photos have been exhibited at the UNESCO, the City Hall of Paris and Beirut Art Fair as well. In 2015 he founded the production unit H7O7 whose main objective is to enable the making and promotion of films and photos with "hybrid" vocation where is privileged the mixture of genres between experimental, documentary, fashion and fiction. His films have been awarded worldwide and have received more than 25 awards and 200 selections in international festivals. In 2020, he founded the collective “Hybrid Wave” with around 30 hybrid artists from around the world.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

It is my look, frank, tired but determined. My voice, with the singing accents of my native Lebanon, with the joyful inflections of the gay communities. It is my mouth that I open to express my weariness in front of the discriminations and prejudices that weigh on me, all day long.

I get dressed, like every morning. It's a universal gesture, but the consequences vary from one individual to another, depending on what someone interprets my outfit as. A pair of jeans, a grey t-shirt, a patterned sweatshirt, an imposing creole, a black hat. The signals diverge... which will assign me terrorist or depraved?
The expression in French “avoir une casquette” (having a hat) means to have one role or responsibility, and “avoir la double casquette” (double-hatting) means to have double roles or responsibilities.
The weight of the double-hatting of gay Arab - or Arab gay, in which sense will I be less discriminated? - forces me to justify myself constantly, even if it means bordering on paranoia. Am I considered an Arab, a gay man, or just me, Hadi?

I am horrified by the increasing liberation of hate speech and the fragmentation of society into smaller and smaller categories. Everyone wants to see only their own kind, without seeking to engage in dialogue with the other, in tolerance.
I decide to open my mouth to claim a community of caring life where everyone will have his place, without having to justify himself.
I want to send a message of hope to all discriminated people by proving that this hat, despite its weight, can be worn proudly.
It's up to us to take back control of it.