Hiner Saleem

Hiner Saleem (b. 1964, Aqrah, Iraqi Kurdistan) left Iraq at age 17, traveling through Syria to Italy. He now lives in France, working as a writer, painter, and filmmaker who debuted with the comedy Long Live the Bride … and the Liberation of Kurdistan (Vive la mariée... et la libération du Kurdistan, 1997). In 2001 he shot Absolitude for TV Arte. His tragicomedies Beyond Our Dreams (Passeurs de rêves, 2000) and Vodka Lemon (2003) were created as French-Italian-Armenian coproductions. Then followed the drama Kilomètre zero (2005) and the music film Dol (2007). He then made the melodrama Beneath the Rooftops of Paris (Les toits de Paris, 2006) starring Michel Piccoli and Mylène Demongeot. His autobiographical book My Father’s Rifle: A Childhood in Kurdistan (Le fusil de mon père) came out in 2004.

48. MFF Karlovy Vary