Soleen Yusef

Soleen Yusef was born in Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan in 1987. At the age of nine she and her family fled to Germany because of political reasons. After graduating high school she attended the Academy of Stage Arts and was trained as singer and actress. Moreover she worked as a production assistant and assistant director fort he production company mîtosfilm.
In 2008 she started studying feature film directing at the Baden-Wurttemberg Film Academy. Her Film TRATTORIA, which she has made in her third year premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2012.
HOUSE WITHOUT ROOF is at the same time her graduating project and first feature film and has been shooting in spring 2015 in and around her hometown Duhok.

Films Selection

Mari Bakke Riise

She is educated as a documentary director from NISS. She has worked in the film- and television business for over ten years. She started as an editor, but has for the last 8 years worked as a director. She has directed several television productions, documentary films and documentary series. She has worked for several production companies like Skofteland film, Mastiff, Strix, Nordisk Film, Itv, Rubicon, Monster, NRK, Speranza, Integral film and others.

Etienne Comar

Étienne Comar (born 25 January 1965) is a French film producer, screenwriter and film director. After finishing his studies at the La Fémis Film School in Paris, Comar worked as a production manager at Erato Films From 2009 onwards, he began writing for many of the films he had produced. He is known for producing the films Of Gods and Men (2010) and Timbuktu (2014), for which he won the César Award for Best Film as producer in 2011 and 2015. In 2017, his directorial debut DJANGO – A LIFE FOR MUSIC was selected to open the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Hanna L. Cegliska-Lenodorska

Polish Journalist conducting many outstanding interviews with world-class personalities in the field of science, politics, economy, culture, art and sport. Director, writer, film producer, academic lecturer, social activist.

Khadija Baker

A Montreal-based, multi-disciplinary artist of Kurdish-Syrian descent. Her installations investigate social and political themes centered on the uncertainty of home as it relates to persecution, identity, displacement, and memory. As a witness to traumatic events, unsettled feelings of home are a part of her experience. Her multi-disciplinary installations (textile, sculpture, audio/video) involve participative storytelling and performance to create active spaces of empathy and greater understanding. Her most recent work explores the social aspects of violence in the Arab world and specifically how it affects women and children.

Arman T. Riahi

He was born in Iran and grew up in Vienna, where he already made his first short films as student. He studied media technology and worked as a graphics and screen designer in London and Vienna. In 2005, Riahi designed his first television series as a director for Donnerstag Nacht at the ORF, the well-known program without name and the culture magazine Sunshine Airlines. His short film “Elektronikschrott” won the Austrian short film price Shorts on Screen 05. In 2006, Riahi was a participant of the Berlinale Talent Campus in the category of director/book. Since 2005, Riahi has been working as a freelance director and author for various Viennese filmproductions.

Han föddes i Iran och växte upp i Wien, där han redan gjorde sina första kortfilmer som student. Han studerade medieteknik och arbetade som grafik- och skärmdesigner i London och Wien. År 2005 utformade Riahi sin första tv-serie som regissör för ORF’s Donnerstag Nacht, det välkända programmet utan namn, och kulturtidningen Sunshine Airlines. Hans kortfilm “Elektronikschrott” vann det österrikiska kortfilmpriset Shorts on Screen 05. År 2006 deltog Riahi på Berlinale Talent Campus i kategorin regissör/bok. Sedan 2005 har Riahi arbetat som frilansregissör och författare för olika wienska filmproduktioner.