Ali Eldurssi, Aixa Kay, Helena Marie, Craig March, Araz Yaghoubi, Daniella Eldurssi
Canada
2024
In English and Arabic with English subtitles
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Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Panta Mosleh
Producer
Sina Nazarian, Panta Mosleh, Alireza Kazemipour
Screenwriter
Alireza Kazemipour
Cinematography
Mikah Sharkey
Editor
Saeed Vahidi
Production Design
Gwendolyn Margetson
Original Music
Mehrdad Jafari Raad
Alireza Kazemipour
Alireza Kazemipour, Iranian-Canadian filmmaker, with 2-decades of experience as a screenwriter in Iran. He holds a master’s in Cinema studies and has directed award-winning shorts including The Gold Teeth (2022) and Split Ends (2022), recognized in over 150 film festivals worldwide, championing social justice, women’s rights, and immigrant issues.
Panta Mosleh
Panta Mosleh is a Queer Middle Eastern-West Asian-Canadian Director, Writer, Producer who splits her time between Vancouver and LA. Currently working as a TV movie director, she has directed for A&E, Lifetime, TF1, NBC Peacock and Hallmark. Panta currently has two tv series in development; one scripted and one unscripted. Panta hopes to make her own theatrical feature film someday.
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