Shehab Fatoum was born 1994 in a small syrian city called Salamiyah, besieged by the deseret from the east and a green valley from the west. Salamiyah is the syrian name of "Salamis" which is a great battle between Greek and Persians 480 BC. The people in Salamiyah are well-known for communisim, poetry, poverty and belonging to a religious minority.
2011 the uprise begun in Syria and the city was an active part of it, Shehab was 17 and graduating from high school, but he was participating the uprise and was significantly influenced and even embossed by it. His first experiences in Film were at the age of 19 when he and his local friend Yassin Almssalakh made the short film "the missed" about a young man who lost his ID Card, and later the short film " how I suicided " based on Aziz Nesin's short story about someone who fails suiciding.
Later when the uprise turn to a war, Salamiyah was besieged -this time in real, not figuratively- by ISIS, rebels and Assad's Regime which made the city suffers of all sides : of ISIS because of religious beliefs, of some rebels because it's under control of Assad and also of Assad's regime as a punishment, because the city was a part of the uprise. In the meanwhile Shehab was mostly in Jaramanah-Damascus, a quarter where sometimes until 40 shell rockets were daily falling, which made him stop his studies, but still he was able to participate several theatre workshops and shows, which dealt with Pantomime as well as russian theatre early 20th century.
When the situation was harder and more complicated, and as the first russian soliders were entering Syria, he left heading to Europe and settled down coincidentally in Germany. Very soon he was at Theater an der Ruhr and later a member of the touring theatre "theater-spiel" touring around Germany and playing theatre for youth and kids. in 2018 he was accepted at the Folkwang University of Arts in Acting departments. he played in many state theatres in the region Ruhrpott and continued making independent films beside the study and playing roles in short films.
In 2022 he graduated and won the Folkwang prize for his graduation project. Since 2023 he is a member of state theatre Aachen.
Shehab worked sofar in Syria, France and Germany. his short films were screened in several europian filmfestivals and beyond.