Onur Karaman

Writer, producer and director Onur Karaman cut his teeth on a string of short films before drawing on his own experiences as an immigrant to explore themes of cultural identity with his critically-acclaimed first full-length feature, "La ferme des humains" (2013). Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1982, Karaman moved to Montreal with his family aged eight years old where he developed a love of cinema and, after attending the city's Champlain College, began to focus on pursuing a career in the film industry. Karaman went onto direct several shorts including "Le Ride" (2006), "Fighting For My Kids" (2007), "Hips Don't Lie" (2008) and "L'histoire d'un malade" (2009) before setting up Karaman Productions, an independent film production company designed to explore the human condition. Written whilst Karaman was holding down a 40-hours-a-week customer service job, "Stations" (2009) was screened at Telefilm Canada's 34th annual World Film Festival, while after adding to his filmography with "R'en-donner" (2010), he set about scripting, producing and directing his first full-length feature. Inspired by the indie films he grew up watching, including Kevin Smith's low-budget debut "Clerks" (1994), French thriller "La Haine" (1995) and Danny Boyle's cult classic "Trainspotting" (1996)," "La ferme des humains" (2013) arrived three years later and immediately gained plaudits for representing the multi-ethnic society that Quebec cinema had previously been accused of ignoring. Based around the exploits of Moroccan immigrant Karim (Karim Jallal), Canadian J-P (Raphaël Lacaille) and Latino Jose (Dominic Quarré), three friends who spend their days philosophizing, checking out girls and smoking pot on a park bench, the gritty drama premiered at the Rendez-vous du cinema quebecois in 2013 and received a wider release a year later.