Izer Aliu (director)
{{Short description|Norwegian filmmaker (born 1982)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| image =
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| name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1982}}
| birth_place = Macedonia
| nationality = Norwegian
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| occupation = Director
Screenwriter
| years active = 2012-present
| children =
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Izer Aliu (born 1982) is a Norwegian-Macedonian director and screenwriter. He is most well known for his 2016 debut feature film, Hunting Flies. He wrote and directed TV series Countrymen ({{lang|nv|Jordbrukerne}}) and a second feature film, 12 Dares ({{lang|nv|12 bragder}}), while a third feature film is under way {{as of|lc=yes|May 2024}}.
Early life and education
Izer Aliu, who is of Albanian descent, was born in Macedonia in 1982. He moved to Sweden when he was two years old, and grew up mostly in Norway and Sweden, later becoming a Norwegian citizen.{{cite web | title=Izer Aliu | website=Albanian Institute New York | date=16 May 2023 | url=https://www.albanianinstitute.org/artist/izer-aliu/ | access-date=20 May 2024}}
He first studied international relations and philosophy, before studying filmmaking at the Norwegian Film School at Lillehammer. There he taught young people in filmmaking workshops, as part of Filmbussen ("the cinema bus"), which travelled to schools in the vicinity. He graduated in 2012.{{cite web | title=Hunting Flies /Fluefangeren | website=Scandinavia House | date=2 January 2020 | url=https://www.scandinaviahouse.org/sh/films/hunting-flies/ | access-date=20 May 2024}} He has spoken of the gratitude he feels towards his teachers, "who made me realize things I cannot imagine living without today", and his filmmaking education.
{{as of|2023}} Aliu was a PhD student at the Film School, researching "if all editing is a lie". He intends to explore the process of editing through the life of making a film, from writing, through production, to post-production, and investigate whether there is a way "to 'cut' without 'cutting'".{{cite web | title=Izer Aliu | website=Den Norske Filmskolen | date=15 September 2023 | url=https://filmskolen.no/en/employees/artistic-research/177816/izer-aliu | access-date=20 May 2024}}
Career
Iliu's first short film, made as a student for exam purposes, was To Guard A Mountain ({{lang|nv|Å vokte fjellet}}; 2012), which received the Amanda Award for best short film at the Norwegian International Film Festival,{{cite web | title=Izer ALIU | website=Gothenburg Film Festival | date=23 January 2022 | url=https://goteborgfilmfestival.se/en/guest/izer-aliu/ | access-date=20 May 2024}} among others.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
His next short film was The Good Life, Over There ({{lang|nv|Det gode livet, der borte}}), which was nominated for the Amanda.
His breakthrough came with his debut feature film, Hunting Flies, a political film which explores "the birth, the flourishing and the fall of a dictator, within a school setting". There was only one professional actor in the film.{{cite interview | title=Izer Aliu • Director | website=Cineuropa | date=24 April 2017 | url=https://cineuropa.org/en/interview/327561/|first=Izer| last= Aliu | access-date=20 May 2024| quote=Translated from French by Hannah Thompson}}
In 2018 Aliu made a short film, Crazy Love ({{lang|fr|L'Amour Fou}}), produced by frequent collaborator Khalid Maimouni. In this film, a man pretends to be mad in order to scare his neighbours in his small village, and then moves to the city to do the same thing.
He co-wrote the Rubicon TV Franco-Norwegian comedy TV series Countrymen ({{lang|nv|Jordbrukerne}}; 2021) with experienced writer-creator Anne Bjørnstad (Lilyhammer, Beforeigners). The series, which was filmed in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, centres on four immigrant men who move from Oslo to a little village in Telemark, south-eastern Norway. Khabib, the leader of the group, has big plans that rarely go the way he intended. Bjørnstad learnt Muslim prayers and learnt about the religion from an imam during the shooting.{{cite interview | title=Countrymen's director/co-writer Izer Aliu, on breaking prejudice with comedy|first=Izer| last= Aliu | website=Nordisk Film & TV Fond | date=14 October 2021 | url=https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/countrymens-director-co-writer-izer-aliu-on-breaking-prejudice-with-comedy | access-date=20 May 2024}} After being screened at Canneseries, Countrymen was broadcast on NRK in October 2021.
In 2022, his second feature film, 12 Dares ({{lang|nv|12 bragder}}), which he wrote and directed, premiered at the 2022 Gothenburg Film Festival on 2 February 2022. After being screened at several other festivals, it was released in Sweden on 15 December 2023 by SVT.{{Cite web |title=12 Dares |website= Swedish Film Database |url=https://www.svenskfilmdatabas.se/en/item/?type=film&itemid=85990#titles |access-date=13 May 2024 |language=sv }} The film, a comedy drama, is a Swedish-Norwegian co-production,{{cite web | title=Crazy Love (L'Amour Fou) | website=Norwegian Film Institute | date=13 June 2018 | url=https://www.nfi.no/eng/film?name=crazy-love&id=1918 | access-date=20 May 2024}} produced by Lizette Jonjic of Zentropa Sweden, Maria Ekerhovd of Mer Film, and Khalid Maimouni of Storyline. Its title derives from the plotline: a 16-year-old boy in Sweden has to do 12 dares to prove his loyalty to his friends.{{cite web | last=Mitchell | first=Wendy | title='Hunting Flies' director plots three more projects | website=Screen | date=10 September 2016 | url=https://www.screendaily.com/news/hunting-flies-director-plots-three-more-projects/5109284.article | access-date=20 May 2024}}{{cite web | title=12 Dares | website=PÖFF | date=14 November 2022 | url=https://poff.ee/en/film/12-dares/ | access-date=21 May 2024}}
{{as of|May 2024}} Aliu's third feature film, 4 Guys and a Bag,{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} is in post-production.{{cite web | title=Procrastination, precision and poetry - Empowering impulsivity in a planned system of filmmaking|first=Izer| last= Aliu | website=Artistic Research Norway | url=https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1495740/2533593?c=107 | access-date=20 May 2024}}
He says that what challenges him most in filmmaking is balancing his "need to be impulsive and improvise based on the surroundings" with the lengthy and meticulous planning needed to make a film. About his filmmaking:{{blockquote| Regarding my international ambitions: I have great ambitions, mostly because film is a universal language, with regional limitations. I think that as long as you are locally based, but express yourself globally, it makes it easy for everyone to gain insight in what being a human really entails. Although we are bound by limitations, our films are not.}}
Awards and nominations
- 2012: Student Academy Award
- 2012: Amanda Award for Best Short Film, for To Guard A Mountain ({{lang|nv|Å vokte fjellet}})
- 2014: Nomination, Amanda Award for Best Short Film, for The Good Life, Over There ({{lang|nv|Det gode livet, der borte}}){{cite web | title=Izer Aliu | website=Oslo Pix English | date=8 August 2022 | url=https://www.oslopix.no/en/guests/2022/izer-aliu | access-date=20 May 2024}}
- 2014: Best Film Award at the Grimstad Festival at Grimstad, Norway, for The Good Life, Over There ({{lang|nv|Det gode livet, der borte}})
- 2015: Anders Jahre Culture Prize for young artists{{cite web | title=Anders Jahres pris for yngre kunstnere går til billedkunstneren Johanne Hestvold og filmregissøren Izer Aliu | website=Anders Jahres Humanitære Stiftelse | url=https://ajhs.no/nyheter-og-pressemeldinger/anders-jahres-pris-for-yngre-kunstnere-gaar-til-billedkunstneren-johanne-hestvold-og-filmregissoeren-izer-aliu/ | language=no | access-date=25 May 2024}}
- 2017: Many awards and nominations for Hunting Flies, including:
- Winner, Norwegian Peace Film Award{{cite web | title=Hunting Flies – Norway | website=Nordic cooperation | url=https://www.norden.org/en/nominee/hunting-flies-norway | access-date=20 May 2024}}{{cite web | title=free screening of last year's winning film | website=UiT | url=https://uit.no/tavla/artikkel/557270/norwegian_peace_film_award_winner_-_free_screenin | language=nb | access-date=21 May 2024}}
- Winner, Amanda Award for Best Direction{{cite web | title=Record Amanda wins for Norway's The King's Choice | website=Nordisk Film & TV Fond | date=21 August 2017 | url=https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/record-amanda-wins-for-norways-the-kings-choice | access-date=20 May 2024}}
- Winner, BUSTER Award for Best Children's Film{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
- Nominated, Nordic Council Film Prize{{cite web |url=http://www.nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/five-nordic-films-nominated-for-nordic-council-film-prize-2017 |title=Five Nordic Films Nominated for Nordic Council Film Prize 2017 |first=Annika |last=Pham |date=22 August 2017}}{{cite web | title=New York Premiere | website=Albanian Institute New York | date=27 August 2019 | url=https://www.albanianinstitute.org/film/hunting-flies-new-york-premiere/ | access-date=20 May 2024}}
- 2021: Special Interpretation Prize (for the whole cast) and the High School Prize for Best Series (voted by students from local lycées) at Canneseries, for Countrymen{{cite web | last=Durie | first=Alexander | title=Banijay-Sold Canneseries Winner 'Countrymen' Broken Down by Writer-Director Izer Aliu | website=Variety | date=15 October 2021 | url=https://variety.com/2021/tv/features/banijay-nrk-canneseries-winner-countrymen-1235089971/ | access-date=21 May 2024}}
- 2021: Countrymen is selected as one of the best international series released that year
- 2022: Rockie Award for Best Comedy Series: Non-English Language, at the Banff World Media Festival, Banff, Canada, for Countrymen{{cite web | title=Izer Aliu | website=CPHTVFESTIVAL | url=https://copenhagentvfestival.dk/speakere/speakere-2022/izer-aliu/ | language=da | access-date=20 May 2024}}{{cite web | title=Rockie Awards ★ 2022 Winner | website=Rockie Awards | url=https://rockies.playbackonline.ca/winners/winner/2022/?e=131809&n=Countrymen | access-date=20 May 2024}}
- 2022: Nominated (one of five) for the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize for outstanding screenwriting of a Nordic drama series{{cite web | title=IN FOCUS: 2022 Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize - Norway| first=Annika |last=Pham | website=Nordisk Film & TV Fond | date=17 January 2022 | url=https://nordiskfilmogtvfond.com/news/stories/in-focus-2022-nordisk-film-tv-fond-prize-norway | access-date=21 May 2024}}
Personal life
He is an avid gamer, and proud of his achievements in Hearthstone and World of Warcraft TBC expansion.
References
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External links
- {{IMDb name|5125973}}
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