Soheil Salimi

Soheil Salimi, born in Tehran back in '78, has been a fixture in Iranian cinema since the late '90s. He got his start with promos and documentaries, but by 2006, he ditched everything else to focus on directing, writing, and editing his own films. The guy’s filmography is like a non-stop roll call, especially from 2010 onwards—short docs, fiction, even TV series, all packed with that restless energy he’s known for. He’s the mind behind “Journey to War with an Actor” and “Life Traveller,” both from 2019, digging into human stories with that unique, sometimes raw, lens he’s got. “Silk & Mirror Lady” (also 2019) and the “Countenance” doc series just show how he bounces from intimate portraits to bigger narratives. In 2018, he switched gears a bit with the fiction film “Gleam of Hope,” and years before that he brought us “Khorramshahr Today” and the movie “Confusion,” both in 2017. He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty—writing, directing, editing, sometimes producing. Take “Butcher’s Angels” from 2013 or “Struggle in Depth of 30 Meters” (2010). He even did the whole shebang for shorts like “Training Day.” If you want a taste of Iranian documentary that doesn’t pull its punches, Salimi’s work is where you wanna look. It’s honest, rough around the edges, sometimes poetic, and always, always personal.