"...an intelligent, well-crafted picture that hits with the power and depth of a nuclear submarine." Film Threat

Toronto International Film Festival
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
Jeonju International Film Festival

While working as a translator, a slip of the tongue forces Sami (Ziad Bakri), a Syrian, to stay in Australia and live in exile as a political refugee. A decade later, when the Syrian revolution starts and his brother is arrested, Sami risks everything to return to Syria to find him. Co-directed by Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf, The Translator is laden with plenty of twists and turns, with Bakri excellent in this gripping, political thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout.

France, Switzerland, Syria - 2020 - 1h 47m
Directed By: Rana Kazkaz, Anas Khalaf
Written By: Rana Kazkaz, Anas Khalaf, Magali Negroni
Starring: Ziad Bakri, Yumna Marwan, David Field

Director Biography - Rana Kazkaz

Rana Kazkaz’s films have been recognized at the world’s leading film festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Tallinn, Tribeca and Abu Dhabi. She received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University/Moscow Art Theater, and BA from Oberlin College. She earned certificates from the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women and the National Theater Institute in Waterford, Connecticut. With a focus on Syrian stories, her producing, screenwriting, and directing portfolio includes Mare Nostrum (2016) which has been selected in over 100 international film festivals and won more than 30 awards, Searching for the Translator, a documentary (2016), Ham (2013), Deaf Day (2011), Exquisite Corpse (2009), and Kemo Sabe (2007). Her first feature film The Translator (2020) won several grants and development awards including the Arte Award at L’Atelier de la Cinefondation at the Cannes Film Festival (2017), the CNC Award at Meetings on the Bridge at the Istanbul Film Festival (2017) and a Tribeca Alumni Grant (2018). The Translator will be distributed internationally in late 2021. Her current projects include Honest Politics and Orphalese. In 2021, she was invited to become a member of the Académie des César and was awarded the Roberta Buffett Visiting Professorship at Northwestern University.