Ziad Kalthoum is a Syrian filmmaker based in Berlin. Born in Homs in 1981, he studied film and made his debut with Oh My Heart (2009), which was censored in Syria. While serving in the military during the 2012 uprising, he began work on his film The Immortal Sergeant, which premiered at Locarno in 2014. After deserting the army in 2013, he fled to Beirut and made Taste of Cement, which won multiple awards, including Best Feature Documentary at Visions du Réel 2017 and a nomination for the German Film Prize in 2018. In 2015, he won Best Feature Documentary at the BBC Arabic Festival. In 2022, he was awarded a three-month artist residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.