Shawkat Amin Korki was born in 1973. Originally from Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan, he and his family fled from Iraqi military oppression to Iran in 1975, where they lived in exile for 25 years. Korki studied Cinema in Iran. During his years in Iran and then when he returned to Iraqi Kurdistan, he began to work in theatre, television, and cinema. His short films, made between 1997 and 2005, have been presented at many international festivals, winning awards and receiving an excellent reception. In 2002, he helped organize the first Erbil Short Film Festival. Crossing the Dust, his debut feature film gained international recognition in 2006 and premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam. Korki’s greatest success to this date has been Memories on Stone (2014), the official Oscar entry from Iraq. His movies have been presented at world-famous film festivals such as Karlovy Vary, Busan, Cairo, Edinburgh, Tallinn, Göteborg, Hong Kong, and many more in the past.