Shawkat Amin Korki was born in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1973: his family fled to Iran in 1975, where they lived in exile for 25 years. Korki studied film in Iran and after some short films, obtained international recognition in 2006 with his debut feature film, Crossing the Dust, set in Iraqi Kurdistan and presented at the Festival of Rotterdam. In 2014, he made Memories on Stone, selected to represent Iraq at the Oscars. His films have been presented at numerous international film festivals, such as Karlovy Vary, Busan, Cairo, Edinburgh, Tallinn, Göteborg, Hong Kong and many others.