Zagros

Zagros is the first feature film of the Belgian/Kurdish film maker Sahim Omar Kalifa (1980). Sahim was born in Iraq and at the age of twenty emigrated to Belgium. He learned Dutch and worked as an interpreter in Brussels, including with the Immigration Department. He then studied film at Saint Luc Brussels film school. He graduated with the short film Nan (2008), which earned him a “wildcard” from the VAF. As a result, he was able to film his first professional short film, Land of the Heroes (2010), which he shot in Iraq. The short film won a large number of prizes, including a jury prize at the 61st Berlinale (section Generation). His next short films, Baghdad Messi (2012) and Bad Hunter (2014) – both also shot in Iraq – turned out to be even bigger prize-winners at festivals and both were on the shortlist of the Oscars. Sahim’s three short films were selected for 250 festivals and won a total of 97 prizes. Sahim also directed an episode of the six-part documentary series Steenweg (2016), which was awarded the prize for best documentary series during the International Documentary Film Festival Docville in Leuven (Belgium) in March 2017.