NATALIA

29-year-old Natalia is about to make her Life Profession in the orders of the Byzantine Catholic Church, leaving behind her exciting life as a young student to devote herself to God. A film about returning to the world or walking away from it, and just how far a person would go for who they love.

ELIZABETH SYLVIA MIRZAEI

Elizabeth Mirzaei is an Oscar nominated director and cinematographer of nonfiction films. Her short film THREE SONGS FOR BENAZIR won a Cinema Eye Honors Award, a Grierson Award, a dozen jury awards, and was nominated for a 2022 Academy Award. The film was released by Netflix. Her award-winning feature LAILA AT THE BRIDGE played at film festivals including Locarno and cph:dox, and had a theatrical release in the United Kingdom. Her work as a cinematographer has screened at TIFF and Venice, among others. She is a Film Independent Fellow, and has been a mentor for Global Media Makers and an advisor for Sundance Co//ab. She lives in California with her husband, Gulistan, their three daughters and family from Afghanistan. NATALIA is her first independently directed film.

Doker 2023 — Main Competition