Ziad Kalthoum

Ziad Kalthoum is a Syrian filmmaker based in Berlin, born in Homs in 1981. His first documentary, “Oh My Heart” (2009), portrayed Kurdish women who chose to live in a society without men. The film was banned in Syria for political reasons. During the Syrian revolution in 2012, while serving compulsory military service, he began his first feature-length film, “The Immortal Sergeant”, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in 2014 and won Best Feature Documentary at the BBC Arabic Festival in 2015. In 2013, Khalthoum deserted the Syrian Army and fled to Beirut, where he began working on “Taste of Cement”. The film screened internationally and received multiple awards, including the Golden Sesterce at Visions du Réel (2017), and was nominated for the German Film Awards in 2018. He is currently developing his next feature, “Last Trip”