Talal Derki

Talal Derki is regarded as one of the most distinguished Syrian filmmakers of his generation. His work is characterised by empathy, personal risk and a fearless commitment to the human stories behind the news headlines. Emerging from film journalism at CNN and Thomson Reuters, Derki began his artistic training at the Stavrako High Institute of Cinematographic Art and Television in Athens, Greece, where he read film directing. Since 2014 he has lived in Berlin, working as a director, producer and screenwriter.
Derki’s films are defined by a distinctive first‑person approach to documentary storytelling, which penetrates conflict societies and uncovers the narratives behind the headlines. In his first feature-length documentary Homs – A Shattered Dream (2013), he portrays two young resistance fighters in the besieged Syrian city of Homs. In the follow‑up Return to Homs (2014), he spent several months behind the front lines to document the personal stories of rebels and civilians.
For perhaps his best‑known film, Of Fathers and Sons (2017), Derki took yet greater risks: over two years he lived undercover as a presumed sympathiser with a radical Islamist family, documenting their daily life and the indoctrinating effect on the father’s two sons. The result is a harrowing yet profoundly human portrait of a generation at war. In his most recent theatrical documentary, Under the Sky of Damascus (2023), co‑directed with Ali Wajeeh, Derki turns his lens to the lives of Syrian women. Through the rehearsal of a theatre production, a group of young activists confront patriarchal structures, everyday violence and sexual abuse in their homeland, issuing a powerful rebuke of silence.

Education

2003 Film Directing, Stavrako High Institute of Cinematographic Art and Television, Athens, Greece

Recent Awards and Memberships

2019 Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Feature (Of Fathers and Sons)
2019 German Film Award for Best Documentary (Of Fathers and Sons)
2019 Invited to membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
2018 World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival (Of Fathers and
Sons)

Filmography

2023 Hollywoodgate (Producer, Co-Writer)
2023 Under the Sky of Damascus (Director, Producer)
2017 Of Fathers and Sons (Director, Screenwriter, Co‑producer)
2013 Return to Homs (Director, Screenwriter, Cinematographer)

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