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Talal Derki
DE SY LB QA 2017 56' 98'
⚬ Human Interest
After his Sundance award-winning documentary RETURN TO HOMS, Talal Derki returned to his homeland where he gained the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses mainly on the children, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up with a father whose only dream is to establish an Islamic Caliphate. Osama (13) and his brother Ayman (12) are in the center of the story. They both love and admire their father and obey his words, but while Osama seems to follow the path of Jihad, Ayman wants to go back to school. The film captures the moment when the children have to let go of their youth and are finally turned into Jihadi fighters. No matter how close the war comes—one thing they have already learned: they must not cry.
Director | Talal Derki |
Producers | Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme, Tobias N. Siebert, Hans Robert Eisenhauer |
Co-Producer | Talal Derki |
Executive Producers | Jenny Raskin, Dan Cogan, Geralyn White Dreyfous |
Production Company | BASIS BERLIN Filmproduktion |
Co-Production Company | Ventana Film, Cinema Group Production |
Cinematography | Kahtan Hasson |
Editor | Anne Fabini |
Music | K.S. Elias |
Sound | Sebastian Tesch |
Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Documentary Competition | Sundance 2018 |
Open Borders Fellowship Award presented by Netflix | Sundance 2018 |
THE GOLDEN HORN for the director of the best film | Krakow FF 2018 |
FIPRESCI award | Krakow FF 2018 |
Special Jury Mention | Valletta FF 2018 |
Big Stamp - International Competition | ZagrebDox 2018 |
Movies That Matter Award | ZagrebDox 2018 |
The Peter Wintonick Audience Award | Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival 2018 |
Best Director | One World Prague 2018 |
Main Prize | 20th Ljubljana Doc Film Festival 2018 |
The Special 10th Anniversary Prize | Millenium IDFF Brussels 2018 |
Special Jury Award | Full Frame Film Festival 2018 |
Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award | Full Frame FF 2018 |
Best Film Award presented by Amnesty International | The International Slovenia Documentary Film Festival 2018 |
Special Mention | Cinepolitica Film Festival 2018 |
Special Mention from the International Jury | DocumentaMadrid 2018 |
Best International Feature | Doc Edge Festival 2018 |
Grand Prize | Pärnu International Documentary and Anthropology Film Festival 2018 |
Deutscher Dokumentarfilmpreis | SWR Doku Festival 2018 |
Fritz Gerlich Award | Filmfest München 2018 |
Best Film in the section The Journey | Sole Luna Doc Film Festival 2018 |
Big Golden Nanook - Grand Prix for the Best Film of the Festival | IDFF Flahertiana 2018 |
The Best Doc Film | Batumi Int. Art House Film Festival 2018 |
AJB Main Award | Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival 2018 |
The Best Doc Film | BIAFF 2018 |
Silver Star | El Gouna FF 2018 |
Best Arab Documentary | El Gouna FF 2018 |
Lo Porto Prize | Terra Di Tutti FF 2018 |
ANHAR Award for Best Arab Film | Karama FF 2018 |
WATCH DOCS Award for best feature-length documentary | WATCH DOCS Human Rights in Film Festival 2018 |
Winner | Budapest International Documentary Festival 2018 |
Youth Award | Festival International des Cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul 2019 |
Best Documentary Film | Dublin International Film Festival 2019 |
Special Jury Mention | Sofia International Film Festival 2019 |
Best Documentary Film | German Film Awards 2019 |
Best Editing | German Film Awards 2019 |
Jury special award for the International Competition | Ânûû-rû Âboro Film Festival 2019 |
IDFA 2017 |
Sundance 2018 |
CPH:DOX 2018 |
Zagrebdox 2018 |
Ambulante 2018 |
Visions du Reel 2018 |
True/False 2018 |
Krakow IFF 2018 |
Full Frame 2018 |
Millenium IDFF Brussels 2018 |
One World Prague 2018 |
Hot Docs 2018 |
DocsBarcelona 2018 |
DocEdge 2018 |
Documenta Madrid 2018 |
Moscow IFF 2018 |
Sarasota FF 2018 |
Sydney FF 2018 |
Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018 |
Filmfest München 2018 |
Transilvania IFF 2018 |
Helsinki IFF 2018 |
Melbourne IFF 2018 |
EBS IDFF 2018 |
Sarajevo FF 2018 |
El Gouna Film Festival 2018 |
Bergen IFF 2018 |
RIDM 2018 |
| Runtimes | 56' 98' |
| Spoken Languages | Arabic |
| Production Countries | Germany, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria |
Talal Derki was born in Damascus and is based in Berlin since 2014. He studied film directing in Athens and worked as an assistant director for many feature film productions and was a director for different Arab TV programs between 2009 and 2011. Furthermore, he worked as a freelance cameraman for CNN and Thomson & Reuters. Talal Derkis short films and feature length documentaries received many awards at a variety of festivals. His feature documentary RETURN TO HOMS has won the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Grand JuryPrize in 2014. The same year, he was a member of the international Jury at IDFA.
