Arta Barzanji

Arta Barzanji is a London-based Iranian filmmaker, critic and lecturer. His current film project is a feature-length documentary titled Unfinished: Kamran Shirdel. Arta is an alumnus of the critic programmes at the Locarno and Ghent film festivals and has written for MUBI Notebook, Outskirts, and Photogėnie, among other outlets.  

Eduardo Williams on The Human Surge 3 (2023)

Alonso Aguilar Candanedo, Arta Barzanji, Abraham Villa Figueroa, 2024
CONVERSATION
07.02.2024
EN

In the playful “sequel” to his 2017 festival breakthrough, The Human Surge, Williams tackles the erratic mechanisms of virtual-reality technology through the lucid hyper-reality of a group of characters ranging from different latitudes in the so-called Global South. Captured entirely with a 360-degree lens that’s normally reserved for VR but projected on a traditional cinema screen, the film follows three groups of friends from Taiwan, Peru and Sri Lanka who meet, converse and traverse through space and time as the film helps transport them across borders through the magic of cinema.