Sahim Omar Kalifa was born in 1980 in Kurdistan, Iraq. He came to Belgium in 2001, where he worked as an interpreter and meanwhile studied Audiovisual Arts at the University of Art and Design Sint-Lukas Brussels. In 2008 he got Master’s degree as a film director. With his successful graduation short film, Nan he won a wildcard (Best Student Film) of the Flemish Audiovisual Fund and could make his first professional short film Land of the Heroes. This film got a huge success, till now received 17 international awards and selected for more than 80 festivals. The best award was at Berlinale 2011 as ‘Jury Award - Best film – Generation section. It was the first time that a Kurdish short film got such award at Berlinale. It is the most awarded Flemish short film in the last decade or so. Sahim is now writing his first feature film Zagros and it will be shot in 2013