Iraqi by birth, theatre director and actor by training and an Antwerp resident for the last six years, in 2013 Mokhallad Rasem will become a new Toneelhuis-maker. In 2010 Rasem put himself on the theatrical map with Iraqi Ghosts, a dynamic play about the impact of war on his generation. Impossible to comprehend for the Western spectator, bitter reality for the twenty-somethings who have spent a large chunk of their lives at war. “What is war? What is winning? What is losing? Rasem tackles this complex theme with the necessary lightness and humour, together with two actors who fled Iraq and two Flemish-German actresses in a theatrical language which surprisingly transcends the cultural differences. Iraqi Ghosts won the Young Theatre Prize at the 2010 Theater aan Zee festival in Ostend and then successfully toured Belgium and abroad.