Jia Zhao

Half Moon

An elegiac documentary following virtuosic clarinettist and composer Kinan Azmeh, a Damascus-born musician living in exile, as he attempts to find meaning and purpose after the outbreak of war in Syria. A profound exploration of the role art can play in forging identity and community.

An Asian Ghost Story

A cinematic and conceptually inventive film that explores the haunting memories of Asia’s late 20th-century modernization through the large-scale export of wigs during the Cold War. Yet, in every wig resides a ghost from the imperial past.

A Marble Travelogue

Blocks of white marble from a Greek quarry are shipped to China, where sculptors turn them into Hellenistic-style statues and columns. The leftover grit is processed into fridge magnets and other souvenirs, which are returned to Europe and sold to Chinese tourists.

I'm So Sorry

In a quiet forest, a sign warns of radiation hazard. “Is this the past or the future?” muses the masked figure who appears like a kind of ghost in nuclear disaster areas. At a time when nuclear power may be re-emerging as an alternative to fossil fuels, this calmly observed and compelling tour takes us to places that may serve as a warning.

Kabul, City in the Wind

The film is a sobering, intimate and warm account of daily life in Kabul during the silent intervals between suicide bombings. The bombings that happened, and those that will, define life for the film's characters; a father who works as a bus driver, and two young boys whose policeman father is away due to murder threats.

Lady of the Harbour

The efforts of Suzanne, originally from China, to help refugees in her adopted homeland of Greece unfold like a tragicomedy.

Where Is Kurdistan?

An illegal immigrant is reminded of his origin by the melodies of an instrument of his birthplace Bumiyan, Afganistan. However, the musician playing the instrument claims that the melodies aren't from Bumiyan, but from Kurdistan. But where is Kurdistan?

Kabul, Year Zero

Kabul, Year Zero captures the perspectives of children living in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine on the war brought by adults, and how they react to the major changes in their lives and surroundings. The story unfolds in layers, with the primary layer focusing on the universe of an Afghan boy, Afshin, and his family - in particular, his two younger brothers and youngest sister. They were born and raised in the shadow of the Chil Dokhtaran mountains in Kabul, before being evacuated to the Netherlands in September 2021 when the Taliban seized control of the country. This layer of the story intertwines with the mirrored stories of other kids - such as the pigeon keeper Fahad in Mosul, Iraq, Vadja in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and the shoe shiner Shukria in Kabul. These kids also document their lives with handy-cams, and take us on trips into their ruined cities on bicycles and to their playgrounds, such as destroyed cars.

Angelus Novus

Afghani refugee Ali and his brother have just arrived in Turkey where, surrounded by many other refugees, his family tries to build a new life. The boys earn their living shining shoes. When one day their spot has been taken, their fragile existence and dreams of a better future hang by a thread.