Short films created by refugee, asylum seeker and migrant film makers from Manchester and the world curated by Lost Lands Film Festival.
Film Details:
Eye of Dawn
by Mazaher
“Mata Hari was a spy for the French”, “Mata Hari was a spy for the Germans”, “She was not a spy but was a dancer, she was wrongly accused!”
There is more than one truth in this genre-breaking film.
How to reconcile the multiple faces of Mata Hari? It literally takes a village.
Eye of dawn is a docu-drama retracing the mythical steps of Mata Hari in a small village of the South of France. She walks the wall of a destitute building brought back to life through set design, projections and most of all through the inhabitant of the village who became both actors and witnesses to her tragic life.
After a few day in the UK to film with professional actors, the director, Mazaher Rostami, took his rushes on the road to La Jarrie Audouin (300 inhabitants) in southwestern France. There with the help of the villagers, he explored the life of “Mata-Hari” and the men who walk through her life.
Lost Land
by Mazaher
A Poetic Documentary exploring the effects of migration and finding ‘home’.
● Director Biography
Mazaher is a British filmmaker born in Iran. He studied traditional art and filmaking in Iran and graduated with an MA in Documentary Production from the university of Salford in 2017.
He currently work as a filmmaker for a British institution in London.
Red dress. No straps
by Maryam Mohajer
1985. Tehran. Iran-Iraq war. For ‘Marmar’ it is another ordinary afternoon at the grandparents’. The echo of ‘Death to America’ chants from the morning school assembly mixes with ‘The voice of America’; grandad’s favourite radio program. Marmar is waiting for granny to make her a dress exactly the same as the glamorous American Popstar; Bright red. No straps.
● Director Biography
Maryam Mohajer was born in Tehran, Iran just before living through revolution, war and immigration. With a background in painting (BA in painting, Tehran Art and Architecture), she discovered animation after moving to UK in 2000 and got her MA from Royal college of art. She lives and works as an animator, director in London.
M.A.M.O.N. (MONITOR AGAINST MEXICANS OVER NATIONWIDE)
by Alejandro Damiani
While Donald Trump is undergoing heart surgery, a portal to another reality opens. Latinos start falling from the sky to the desert, on the Mexico – US border, divided by an enormous wall. An hilarious war breaks between a Trump-like mecha robot and several stereotypical Mexican Latinos.
● Director Biography
ALE DAMIANI (URUGUAY, 1976). Industrial designer and post-producer, he joined Aparato in 2010 as creative director. He is a film director that specializes in VFX. His unique style and deep involvement in the projects has evolved in great results that are making him hugely demanded in lots of markets such us the US, México, Spain, China and Colombia. In 2012 a Sears commercial for Mexico won a VFX silver award in the Ciclope Festival.
Rainbow Children – Portrait of Elika
by Maryam Bayani
In a class presentation, 5-year-old Elika, with dual origins, wants to give her classmates the most truthful image of her mother’s country, Iran. Meanwhile, she encounters many questions from her classmates.
Rainbow Children, is a series of portraits from many kids in Belgium with dual origins in pursue of their identity. This time, it is Elika’s turn…
● Director Biography
Born in 1982, Maryam Bayani is an Iranian filmmaker who entered the art world by studying Graphic Design in Tehran University. Later she obtained her MA in Animation and worked for more than 10 years in this field. After discovering her great passion for merging fantasy and reality she made her award- winning animated documentary, ‘The Pottery Tale’ (2009), which was entered in more than 50 festivals and won international prizes.
In 2015, she won a European scholarship for a Master course in Documentary Filmmaking called Docnomads, for which she is currently studying and living in Europe. So far, she has directed nine films, two of which are animated documentaries, and participated in more than 20 documentary projects in Iran and Europe as editor, assistant director and cinematographer.
Toprak
by Onur Yagiz
Toprak, 8, translates for his parents who can’t speak French. Today, he goes to the hospital with them for his mother’s second trimester ultrasound. He will be the first one to know if the twin babies are brothers or sisters.
● Director Biography
Onur Yagiz (1986) was born in France to Turkish parents. He studied literature, theatre and film at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle University, before directing Patika (2013), his first short film. Toprak (2017) is his second film.
