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Hesam Eslami

Director
Hesam Eslami is an Iranian filmmaker. He directed the documentary film "Disappearance" (2018), which was shown at the IDFA Film Festival, among others. For his short film "Better than Neil Armstrong" (2019), he received the award for best short film at the Tirana International Film Festival. Eslami also co-wrote the screenplay for the film "A Girl in the Room" (2023).

Films

A Band of Dreamers and a Judge

A Band of Dreamers and a Judge

By Hesam Eslami

2023 | 79 min | Documentary

A group of friends, captivated by tales of hidden ancient treasures, conduct clandestine excavation operations in the mountains of northern Iran.

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Disappearing

Disappearing

2022 | 98 min | Documentary

In the heart of Southern Carinthia, a story unfolds that is deeply rooted in a century-old decision. In 1920, like many in the Slovenian community of Carinthia, filmmaker Andrina Mracnikar's grandfather voted for Carinthia to remain within the Republic of Austria, an act of self-determination expected to herald a new era of coexistence for the Slovenian minority. However, the reality that unfolded was starkly different, marking the beginning of a century-long struggle against discrimination. Andrina ...

The Investigator

The Investigator

2023 | 73 min | Documentary

In a reflective journey that bridges past and present, a former investigator of The Hague Tribunal, Vladimír Dzuro, revisits the tumultuous landscapes of the Balkans, where the echoes of war crimes linger nearly three decades later. Directed by Viktor Portel, THE INVESTIGATOR emerges from Dzuro's personal mission to trace back the roots of justice in a region scarred by ethnic conflicts and political upheavals. The documentary is inspired by Dzuro's own experiences, documented in his bestselling ...

The Net_GO TO TRIAL

The Net_GO TO TRIAL

2004 | 90 min | Icons & Media Art

Media coverage of the trial of Ted Kaczynski, better known as the “Unabomber,” was sensationalist and distorted. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski carried out a series of bombings in the United States targeting executives of major airlines and scientists from various elite universities. He was arrested by the FBI in 1996, but a public trial never took place. Instead, Kaczynski accepted a plea bargain in 1998, thus avoiding both the death penalty and committal to a psychiatric institution. Since then, ...

Tomorrow I Leave

Tomorrow I Leave

2024 | 75 min | Documentary

Torn between two worlds: Maria regularly leaves her home in Romania to work as a 24-hour caregiver in Austria. Her sons grow up in Ibănești while she cares for a woman in need of nursing care in Vienna. Every goodbye is difficult, every return is marked by joy, but also by the certainty that she will soon have to leave again. MÂINE MĂ DUC – TOMORROW I LEAVE by Lukas Schöffel and Maria Lisa Pichler is an intimate documentary about the reality of life for many Eastern European caregivers who balance ...

Anqa

Anqa

2023 | 91 min | Documentary

Three women in Jordan live in isolation – not by choice, but out of fear of further violence. Their home is their refuge, but it is also a prison that separates them from the outside world. What does it mean to live a life in the shadows? How do you find strength in the midst of pain? Helin Çelik's documentary addresses a reality that often remains hidden. ANQA is an intimate exploration of the survival strategies of these women, whose stories are told not in words but in images. The camera focuses ...

I Knew You Were My Kind

I Knew You Were My Kind

2023 | 18 min | Shorts

Set in the deserted off-season on the Italian coast, caregivers Anca and Zoya meet at a bus stop shortly before returning home and decide to visit a client's abandoned beach house. A brief vacation turns into a moment of solidarity and tenderness that challenges the structural norms that govern their daily lives. “The discourse on the inner-European class question has never been more present and at the same time more repressed. As a German-Romanian, I encounter these socio-economic conditions every ...

Ella

Ella

2014 | 15 min | Shorts

Ella is a Polish migrant worker who works in Germany to finance her daughter's studies in Poland. Due to illness, her job seems to be in jeopardy. When her daughter decides to come to Germany and faces the same fate as Ella, the mother decides to blackmail her boss for severance pay. The film ELLA deals with social tensions and dependencies that recur in many European migration biographies. The short film focuses on family responsibility, structural exploitation, and the tension between origin and ...

Europa Passage

Europa Passage

2022 | 89 min | Documentary

EUROPA PASSAGE is a profound documentary film by Andrei Schwartz that follows the lives of a group of Romanian Roma over five years. These families commute between their home village of Namaiesti in Romania and Hamburg to earn a living by begging, as there are no job opportunities available to them at home. The film shows the constant challenges and difficulties they face, from discrimination and exclusion from urban emergency programs to the simple living conditions in their village. The story ...

Storm

Storm

2009 | 105 min | Drama

STORM is a gripping political thriller that takes you into the dark corridors of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Hannah Maynard, an experienced prosecutor, faces one of her greatest challenges: She is conducting the trial of Goran Duric, a former commander of the Yugoslav People's Army. Duric is accused of being responsible for the deportation and murder of Bosnian Muslim civilians during the war in Yugoslavia. The trial takes a dramatic turn when the main prosecution witness ...

Aria le film

Aria le film

2017 | 60 min | Documentary

Using the example of her own artificially inseminated pregnancy, Emilie Jouvet presents the difficulties faced by queer people who wish to have children in France. This movie proposes a diversity of stories and reflections on motherhood, parenthood, the desire or not to have a child through a series of portraits shot on smartphones. Millions of people, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, share the desire to have a child. But the path to pregnancy for queer people is often fraught with legal ...