Tell us about yourself. What inspired you to become a filmmaker? I’m Zheer Faraidoon, i was born at the 17th february of 1994s in the sulaymaniyah city in kurdistan the northern of iraq, through all my life’s experiences filmmaking and cinema were the most powerful way of expressing and visual story-telling about the shaded and stunning words stuck in our brain, it became an addictive hobby for me to deliver message on the big screens of cinema that can touch human beings more than any other visual-art because the other arts are all collected in the cinema!
It was two thousand seventeen when i started studying at the university of cinema on the directing departments of college of art of sulaymaniyah which made me to meet many other youngs with same potentials as i do have and it made me to make my first short film (strange crime) at 2017 and it was a good step for my next projects, acting also was a big inspirational part of me that taught me better ways of directing and writing movies!
Zheer Faraidoon Hama Salih is a director, producer, and actor who works in the film industry. He holds two degrees, one from the Department of Filmmaking in the University of Sulaymaniyah’s College of Fine Arts (Directing department) and the other from the Technical College of Administration in the SPU. He has been working in fine arts for ten years as an actor and director. He directed “Strange Crime ",” Inescapable" and "Knife and Life." In addition, He has performed in films such as “Dance of Clothes”, "Unreadable Words”," "Strange Crime”, “the fourth mask “and "Room 217”.
Talk about your last work. What are some of the challenges you faced during production?
As we all faced! Covid-19 was such a traumatic and dark moments of 2019 and 2020, but the potential of filmmaking doesn’t get stopped because of any kind of life tragic events, while it was 2020 during the quarantine me and my team we pre-productioned for our short film (strange crime) for around nine months and we made the short film in while fighting against the covid-19 challenges in november of 2020.
And after the quarantine I was starring in short films and working on writing for my next projects I made with such great inspiration from the team workers and lovers! And for 2021 we made (Knife & Life) short film with such a supportive team work with such a great result for the film! And 90 percent of the team were volunteering for the film which was such a beautiful movement that made the short film great!
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What makes you want to tell stories? In other words, what are the themes/issues you want to incorporate into your work? We are all having something to say but the more we know and get through will change our vision and ways of thinking from time to time and storytelling makes it easier and
better for us to express ourselves about life and to make the vision visual from what we think of and what is going through our brains! And for the theme of my works are more into the mental health recovery and visions of the human beings who suffer from mental issues and the effects on ourselves daily life and the perspective of the mental health patients. I do say everyone out here deserves a healthy environment and education no matter who with what name or color or religion! We all deserve an environment that supports our mental health! Please tell us about your vision and your method of approaching a new project? For the next and soon film project the story is different and mind mazzing! It’s about a group of theater actors who are involved in a crime case inside the house but the maze and the case is getting hard and hard during the film and the killer made a storm calmly in the house to kill the young girl who is rolling at the theater! Also it focuses on the immigrations of most of the young people who leave the new and developing countries of Kurdistan and iraq! Who are your filmmaking influencers? What are the films that were influential for you? In the Kurdistan region area the great director Shawkat is the director of (The Exam) who participated in the most important film festivals world-wide! And I also was a combars of the great film which led me to get touched with the direction of the director! Also (Yasujiro Ozu) and (Alfred Hirchkok) were the two huge sparkles for my vision and steps for directing movies!
How do you think the industry is changing? How has COVID affected independent filmmaking/creation? Covid-19 had the worst and best sides and effects on nature and human beings but mostly we lost many souls and loved ones because of it! And the huge effects on the cinema and the industry was unbelievable! While it changed our taste of filmmaking and thinking! It made us take more responsibilities of filmmaking during production and to know most of the needed skills we may need! Less crew more works and safety What advice would you give to aspiring artists? What are some of the things they must follow/avoid? Filmmakers don't need a big amount of budget! If you want to make a great film! You have to start from a room and to use what is in the room! Do you think films/stories can bring about a change in the world? Cinema has the power to change the biggest wars to peace moments! Cinema can change a lot! (Capernaum) written and directed by (Nadine Labaki) the feature films that lighted the shaded and untold story of one of the most sensitive types of society who goes through hard moments and faces tragic accidents daily from such an early age!
What do you think people like to watch these days? Has the pandemic changed people's taste? The taste of people is changing after what the storm of the pandemic made to our life! People are more into nature and health documentaries that can critically show the life of possible big accidents and events! They are watching more science and infographic films with better sides of education and learning! Please tell us about your upcoming projects. Currently it has been more than 9 months since i am working on my next film project that talks about a detective who is involved in a maze in the aim of finding the killer of one of the actresses at a theater rehearsal! And it is getting more and more puzzling during the films! Also it shows and focuses on the immigrations of people of Iraq and Kurdistan these days!