Ziad Kalthoum is a Syrian filmmaker and actor currently living in Berlin. He was born in Homs in 1981 and holds a degree in film studies. Refusing to fight his own people, he deserted from the Syrian Army in 2013 and fled to Beirut where he started to work on TASTE OF CEMENT. The film has been traveling to festivals around the world and has won various awards, among them the Golden Sesterce for Best Feature Documentary at Visions du Réel in 2017.