Torn

Denmark, Jordan \ 22 min

Director: Jahfar Muataz

Producer: Alexander Nielsen

Synopsis:

Director Jahfar Muataz

Jahfar (29) was born in Baghdad and moved to Copenhagen when he was one year old. He grew up in Copenhagen, Denmark, but has been back and forth between Iraq and Denmark. When he was a teenager, he lived in Iraq during the war for 2 years and witnessed things that played a big part in shaping him as a person and as a film director. Jahfar is fascinated by the psychological part of the human. In particular stories that are hidden behind the curtains, that no one “dares” to address. Film is, for Jahfar, about the way the story is painted/told. How you combine different scenes to create an illusion of moments that the audience can relate to.

In 2019 Jahfar got accepted in the prestigious alternative dansih film school Super16

Throughout time, Jahfar has directed tons of music videos, working with established record labels. He has developed his own artistic visual style, that is clearly shown in his films. Jahfar, has written and directed several short-films and is currenting working on his TV-series with the “DR” and his first feature film with Hyænefilm.

Producer: Alexander Nielsen

Alexander (28) is a Danish film producer moving into the universe of art film focusing on fiction as the primary driver. Alexander defines himself as a creative producer, who not only stands for the overall framework, but also into the whole process from the conception of ideas, script to the practical elements of film production.

Alexander was introduced to the film business through Zentropa´s trainee program. He primarily worked as a producer assistant for Sisse Graum Jørgensen as well as on productions by Thomas Vinterberg and Susanne Bier among others.

After Zentropa, Alexander worked on several TV productions for TV2, TV3 and at the advertising agency Virtue. With his experiences from Zentropa, and the more commercial approach of Virtue in the bag, he has for a couple of years focused on the art film as primary media. This has led to several honors such as winner of the Dorothea von Stetten Art Prize, as well as exhibitions at Tanya Bonakdar New York, Bonn Art Museum Germany, and Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen. Since 2019 Alexander have been a part of the   alternative prestigious film school Super16 and working as a producer at the Danish production company Pegasus productions.

Co-Producer: Batoul Ibrahim

Batoul is a creative producer and co-founder of Writers’ Cell. She leads the production department which is responsible for the
business labor behind the company’s original series and films. She is currently producing ‘Bethesda’ (dark-comedy, short film)
and ‘She Who Lives’, a bilingual existential dark-comedy feature film that is the directorial debut of writer/director Aysha
El-Shamayleh.

Most recently, Batoul was the Narrative Producer on the first season of Ahlan Simsim (a Sesame Street production, MBC3,
YouTube). She has also worked on local, regional and foreign productions, such as Fe-Male 3 (Webseries, YouTube), Heroes
Reborn (NBC series) and Give Up The Ghost (short fiction, Venice Film Festival).

She interned at Morgan Freeman’s production company, Revelations Entertainment, as a Script Reader in Los Angeles in 2017.
Batoul graduated from the University of Chicago with honors in Political Science, and Cinema & Media studies. She is a
Producers Guild of America “Masters Diversity Workshop” fellow (Los Angeles).