Hisham Zaman

His films center on the stories and inner dilemmas of characters united by a common refugee experience, exploring human themes such as love, acceptance, sacrifice, revenge, loyalty and honour.

[9] After arriving in Norway, Zaman ‘took his father’s advice and began working as a car mechanic for Toyota to support his family.

In the evenings, however, he explored his passion for filmmaking by joining an amateur cinema club and using rented and borrowed equipment to begin making his own films.

The 15-minute film tells the story of a father, an undocumented Kurdish refugee making a dangerous journey across Europe, who is forced to choose between two evils for the sake of his young son.

[22] Zaman’s debut feature film, Before Snowfall, is a road movie that tells the story of a young man who sets out on a quest to avenge his family’s honour after his sister runs away from an arranged marriage.

[30] According to the comments given by the jury for the award, “Before Snowfall packs a visual punch to match the force and ambition of its story” and “invites us into many vivid worlds and fulfills many possibilities for cinematography as an art form.”[31] Zaman’s second feature film, Letter to the King, features five characters on a day trip from their refugee shelter to the Norwegian capital city of Oslo, each with a unique agenda for the trip.

Tying the five stories together is the voice of an 83-year-old man, desperate to return to Kurdistan, who decides to write a letter explaining his plight to the King of Norway.

The movie centers on three teenagers who live in a refugee centre in a remote region of Norway and face deportation as they are reaching their eighteenth birthday.

But at the same time, we are judged by the politicians, media, society as one group.”[45] Zaman’s films are all fictional, but they are inspired by real-life events, stories, and personalities.

[55] In his words, “lightness and humour are also present in my films: they are often born from the absurdity of the situations.”[56] Zaman’s work marks a significant departure from mainstream diaspora Kurdish cinema, which has tended to rely heavily on tropes of suffering and political betrayal.

[57] His films have also been recognized for the substantial contribution they have made to Norwegian national cinema by exploring the experiences and challenges of migrant communities in the context of an evolving society.