Director

Aro Hawsar

Aro Hawsar Mahmood (born October 26, 2008, in Byara, Kurdistan) is a Kurdish actor and emerging filmmaker working across theatre and cinema. He began his artistic journey at the age of sixteen, developing a multidisciplinary approach that combines acting, writing, and directing. His theatre work includes performances in Gilgamesh (2026), Julius Caesar (2026), and Hamlet (2026), in which he portrayed the title role. He also appeared in The Shining Play (2026), after previously contributing as an actor’s assistant in The Shining Play (2025) and An Enemy of the People (2025). His stage experience reflects a growing engagement with both classical and contemporary texts. In cinema, Aro has written and directed independent projects including Kota Nama (2025) and Sound of the Mountains (2026), with further work currently in development. His filmmaking style is shaped by symbolism, minimalism, and realism, often emphasizing atmosphere, visual storytelling, and emotional restraint. He studied theatre at the Sulaimaniyah Fine Arts Institute, where he participated in workshops covering improvisation, acting, screenwriting, dance, and mobile filmmaking under various instructors, including Shwan Karim, Shwan Attoff, Yahya Ibrahim, Katren Hashim, and Hawraz Mohammed. Aro’s work is driven by a desire to evoke feeling and reflection in audiences, while also presenting Kurdish culture to a wider international context. Despite limited support in his early environment, he pursued art as a form of personal expression, viewing cinema as a language through which he can communicate what words cannot.