Talal Derki

Talal Derki is a Syrian Kurdish director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Damascus and of Kurdish descent, Derki studied film directing in Athens at Stavrako High Institute of Cinematographic Art and Television, graduation in 2003. He worked as an assistant director for feature film productions and was a director for different Arab TV programs & TV films between 2009 and 2012. He worked as a freelance cameraman for CNN and Thomson Reuters. Talal Derki’s short films and documentaries received awards at a variety of festivals. His feature documentary Return to Homs has won the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize. In 2014 he was a member of the international Jury at IDFA. Talal Derki lives now in Berlin, Germany.