Juri team 2017

Siddiq Barmak was born in Panjshir, Afghanistan, on September 7, 1962.

He got his M.A degree in cinema direction from the Moscow film institute (VGIK) in the year 1987. He is a Golden Globe-winner Afghan film director and producer. His first feature film Osama, won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2004.

Siddiq Barmak dreamed of being a cinema projectionist, but he eventually realized that he wanted to have a more hands-on role in filmmaking, and in 1987, he got his masters in film direction.In 1988, he made his first documentary short film, called The Disaster of Withering, and in 1991, he filmed his first full-length documentary: The Hadith of Conquer. From 1992 to 1996 Siddiq was head of the Afghan Film Organization while living in Kabul, but when the Taliban took control, filmmaking was banned, and Barmak was forced to escape first to the north, then eventually to Pakistan. Returning in 2001 after an American-led invasion brought about the collapse of Taliban, Siddiq re-established the Afghan Film Organization and went on to found the Buddha Film Organization. Unfortunately, all of Siddiq’s previous works were confiscated and destroyed during the Taliban regime. Among his film credits is the Dari language film Urooj that depicts the Afghan resistance against the 1979 to 1989 invasion of the Soviet Union.

Barmak decided to write and direct his first feature film, Osama (2003), after hearing a true story about a girl in Afghan who disguised herself as a boy during the Taliban regime so she could attend school. Barmak decided to use non-professional actors in the film and searched orphanages and refugee camps for his cast. He found a 12-year-old girl, Marina Golbahari, to play his main character on the street after she approached him to ask for spare change. Osama has won awards all over the world, including a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

His recent future film Opium war 2008 was about Two American soldiers wounded in the Afghanistan desert stumble across a Russian tank, which has a group of Afghanis living inside.

Soheila Mohebi

Soheila Jahaveri “Mohebi” was born in Iran on January 1, 1979. In the beginning, she studied electrical engineering at the University of Tehran, then she starts to write screenplays since she met her husband Razi Mohebi. She worked many years in Afghanistan beside tens Afghan and international filmmakers after the Taliban regime. Now she lives and works in Italy as a political refugee. Here is her recent 10 years activism with media and cinema.

2017:

• Member of jury, Visions Italian documentary and short Film Festival, Cineteca of Bologna, Italy.
• Member of Jury, Working Title Film Festival, Vicenza, Italy
• Organizing and teaching in workshops of theory –practice of narrative video, Sociocinema

2016:

• Best Screenplay Mutti-AMM, for “The House in the Clouds”, 73rd Venice Film Festival in Venice.
• Assistant of Director, documentary film about refugee in Calais, France.

• Screening of the “Citizens of nowhere” and “Afghanistan 2014- detail”, in Poland-Krakow Film Festival.

• Screening of the “Citizens of nowhere” in context of the festival “Sguardo Altro”, Rome and Bologna

2015:

• Assistant director in Short film “Citizens of the world,” Funded by the Autonomous Province of Trento, in the context of the European project “Global School”.

• Screening of “Citizens of nowhere” in the 72nd Venice Film Festival in Venice, within the City of Venice Prize.

• Screening of “the Void” Citizens at the Cineteca di Bologna at the festival Italian visions.

2014:

• Premiere of the film for Best Documentary in 2014 Afghanistan-Insert in Kazan International Film Festival, Tataristan, Russia.

• Mutti Prize 2014 for the best screenplay at the Venice International Film Festival

2013:

• Co directing with Razi Mohebi second episode of Documentary films, Afghanistan 2014-Insert, produced by Filmwork Trento

2012:

• Co directing with Razi Mohebi, first episode of Documentary films, Afghanistan 2014 Long-shot, produced by Filmwork Trento.

2011

• Organizing and teaching in workshops of theory –practice       of narrative video, Sociocinema

2010

• Assistant of director the feature “GRIDAMI” (apple, pomegranate, Blue), selected for the Venice International Film Festival 2010 – the “Invisible City”. (IMMIGRATION PROBLEM OF WORK), produced by Cinformi

 

Ali Hazara

Homayoun Karimpour

Homayoun Karimpour was born in Kabul and holds a degree in Fine Arts. Very young he begins to write. His short stories are published in the biggest magazine of the Afghan capital. Some are broadcast on a radio show. He makes two short films. With the arrival of the Soviets he takes the roads of exile, crosses several countries before settling in Italy for a period of three years. Then he asks for political asylum in France. He writes many scripts intriguing producers. No one dares to invest in a film taking place in a country at war. In 1999 he made his first feature, Nilofar in the rain, on the Afghan border. His film is selected in 17 international festivals and in the competition section of Tribeca of New York. To earn his living he became a sales executive in the industry without ever ceasing to write. He analyzes scenarios and collaborates with some Afghan Media and Radio. News from  Darya is his second feature film.

Chiara Zanini

“Chiara Zanini is an italian film critic and press assistant. She studied Film and Arts at University of Padua, her hometown. She currently works at African, Asian and Latin America Film Festival in Milan and editing a book about the italian cinema law.”