Hiner Saleem

Hiner Saleem, also transliterated as Hiner Salim, (1964- ), is a Iraqi-Kurdish film director. He was born in the town of Aqrah in Iraqi Kurdistan. He left Iraq at the age of 17, and soon made his way to Italy, where he completed school and attended university. Later on, he moved to France where he lives now. In 1992, after the First Gulf War, he filmed undercover the living conditions of Iraqi Kurds. This footage was shown at the Venice Film Festival. In 1998, he made his first movie, "Vive la marie ... et la liberation du Kurdistan". His second, "Passeurs de rêves", came out in 2000, and his third film, Vodka Lemon, released in 2003, won the "San Marco Prize" at the Venice Film Festival [http://www.labiennale.org/it/cinema/storia/2000/it/4554.1.html] . He wrote and directed all three. He was honored with the prestigious title "Chevalier des Arts et Lettres" by French Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres in 2005. His memoirs titled "My Father's Rifle" has been published in French and English.

Filmography as director, writer

#Vive la mariée... et la libération du Kurdistan (1997)
#Passeurs de rêves (2000) (English Title: Beyond Our Dreams)
#Absolitude (2001) (TV)
#Vodka Lemon (2003)
#Kilomètre zéro (2005)
#Dol (2007)
#Les Toits de Paris (2007) (English Title: Beneath the Rooftops of Paris)

Books

#, Translated from French by "Catherine Temerson", 112 pp., Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Jan. 2005, ISBN 0-374-21693-2.

References

*
* [http://www.festival-cannes.fr/perso/index.php?langue=6002&personne=4245676 Hiner Saleem] , Cannes Film Festival.
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2078/is_2_48/ai_n8692081 Hiner Saleem, Literary Review, Winter 2005] .
* [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0374216932/ My Father's Rifle: A Childhood in Kurdistan] .
* [http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/12/news/saleem.php The Shows: Making a movie in and on Iraq, International Herald Tribune] , May 2005.