Tensions Run High in Muschirf Shekh Zeyn’s Short Film "Killing Bagheera"

Muschirf Shekh Zeyn’s German-Syrian short film "Killing Bagheera" — which recently screened at the Madani International Film Festival in Indonesia within the festival’s East Cinema Program — is a refugee journey told through a simple premise that forms the narrative for a claustrophobic and intense drama surrounding friendship, courage, dreams, and how displaced individuals live.

The film’s tense atmosphere, whether in the context of the strained friendship between its two protagonists or the fact that they’re both on a perilous journey to escape their own country and find freedom, has managed to keep audiences hooked until the very last minute.

This short banks on the curiosity that builds before the audience finds out the protagonists’ end goal and watches them as they fight to reach it against the life-or-death odds, as well as the contentious relationship evident between the two men, whose differences in character are also highlighted early on in the film.

In terms of cinematography, the film’s camerawork and colors work well to mimic the story’s high-tension nature, with the most tense scene in the film being the darkest as well, to mirror the surge of negative, melancholy, strained feelings both characters experience as they get stuck in the narrow tunnel that would eventually lead to their freedom.

The same scene was also marked by an absence of any background music, heightening the experience for the audience and conveying the protagonists’ discomfort, claustrophobia, and tension.

Although a young, rising talent — in his first outing as an actor, no less — Dara Lalo’s performance in the short film was undoubtedly authentic and commendable.

"Killing Bagheera" follows Alan and Bekes who find in their attempts to enter Europe as refugees that their journey is fraught with dangers and challenges that will put their friendship to the test.

It’s this human journey — alongside the many references paying homage to Rudyard Kipling’s stories of Mowgli from "The Jungle Book"

— that has made "Killing Bagheera" very popular on its festival run.

Aside from its recent screening at Madani, the film’s recent achievements also include a whooping eight international awards under its belt, the latest being Best Short Film at the Türk Fi̇lm Festi̇vali̇ Frankfurt and the Golden Prize and Young Director Award at the Wendland Shorts Kurz film festival.

Directed and edited by Zeyn, the film is written by Anita Hauch and Sharyhan Osman, produced by Seren Sahin, and stars Dara Lalo and Sipan Hasan with MAD Solutions handling distribution worldwide.

Hailing from a similar background and plight as his protagonists, director Muschirf Shekh Zeyn was born in 1988 to a Kurdish family and grew up in Syria’s Kamishli before being displaced by the Syrian Civil War and becoming a refugee himself.

After two years of non-stop traveling and working odd jobs to keep his head above water, he landed in Bremen, Germany, and began producing his own films. He has also been studying film directing at the University of Television and Film Munich since 2019 and is a Heinrich-Böll-Foundation scholarship recipient.