BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ

Burhan Qurbani was born 1980 in Germany after his parents moved there in 1979 as political refugees from Afghanistan. His father was a civilian employee in the U.S. Army and so Burhan grew up in different cities all over Germany. In 2002, he started studying Film Directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. For his short films he received the Short Film Prize of German Film Critics, the German Camera Prize for best short and the Black Pearl for the best upcoming filmmaker at the Middle East International Film Festival in 2008. Shahada, Burhan’s first full length feature film, premiered as part of the Official Competition of the 60th Berlinale in 2010. The film had theatrical releases in Germany, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Greece. Shahada also received, amongst many other awards, the Golden Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival and was screened at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar.