01The Kites
00:13:00✶ Special Mention of the Jury, 70th Berlinale · Screener on request
Vienna · 2.39 : 1
Madyar M. Shasha
Filmmaker·Writer·Poet
Films about identity, displacement and the search for a voice, told in images that rhyme.
Berlinale 70
Special Mention of the Jury
The Kites · 2020
The Kites · 2020
The reel
Drag or scroll · 2011 — 202501
02Watch
This Is It
2022
03Watch
Blockage
2021
04UKI – 40th Anniversary
00:14:00
05Watch
Stalker in the Age of Postmodern Poetry
00:07:00
06Watch
Re:frame
00:04:00
07Watch
The Day the Crow Stopped Cawing
00:09:00
08Watch
L-INKED in Open Spaces
2022
09Watch
A Man with a Movie Camera
00:04:00
10Watch
A Real Man Never Trades Love
00:00:30
11Dialogue
2011
01 / 11
On the slate
2026 — 2028The False
A young Iranian singer rebuilds her life in Vienna. Shot in Vienna and Burgenland, August 2026.
Writer · Director · Lead producerA War Story
An Alpine drama: a young poet caring for his mother is called up for a war that is never named.
Writer · Director · ProducerCrossing
Debut feature. A political war thriller set across Europe, in Kurdish and German.
Writer · Director · ProducerNegah
Music videos for the artist Vazista, whose career he also manages and produces.
Director · ProducerAbout
Kurdish-born · Vienna-based
A filmmaker, writer and poet whose work explores identity, displacement and the human condition.
Madyar M. Shasha trained in directing at Tehran University of Art, Prague Film School and NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia, and is completing his MA in Time-based Media at the University of Art and Design Linz. A photographer since the age of 14, he has worked for two decades across fiction, documentary, experimental film and television as a director, producer, cinematographer, editor and colorist.
He co-produced The Kites, which received the Special Mention of the Jury at the 70th Berlinale, and wrote and directed the short fiction films Blockage and This Is It, the latter for Austrian broadcaster DORF TV. His films draw on lived experience and collective memory, pairing poetic imagery with narrative precision.
Awards & selections
- 2021Cannes Residency, with the feature project The Storks
- 2020Special Mention of the Jury, 70th Berlinale
- 2013Scholarship, Ralph NJ Foundation, New York
- 2007Best Editing, 6th Nahal Student Film Festival
Education
- 2022–26MA Time-based Media, University of Art and Design Linz
- 2013–14Filmmaking Diploma, Prague Film School
- 2012MFA Film Production, NYU Tisch Asia
- 2006–11BA Cinema (Directing), Tehran University of Art
Languages
- NativeKurdish, Persian
- FluentEnglish
- WorkingGerman
Music
- SinceArtist manager and producer for Vazista
Written word
Poetry · Prose · Persian & EnglishMaahtaab
Poetry collection, Persian and English
The Living God
Novel in development, English
Valentine
Novella in development, English
Remember
Short story, English
Dervish and the Blood Moon
Short story, Persian
Recrucified
Short story, Persian and English
Contact
Let’s make the next one.
+43 664 1834369 · Vienna, Austria
