“TWO STARS SHORT”

Director Biography

Zak is a writer and director from London whose work has screened at over seventy film festivals, won international awards and been commissioned by Netflix.

Zak recently co-wrote Netflix original I USED TO BE FAMOUS, a music-infused feature film that reached Number 4 in the global charts in its opening week.

His first short film DELETING EMILY won Filmmakers' Choice and Audience Award at Washington DC Shorts 2012 and has been in distribution with ShortsTV for over 10 years. CONTRACTOR 014352 (written by Zak and starring Johnny Flynn) won Best European Short at Brest Film Festival in 2017, Grand Jury Prize at Kinematic Shorts and Best Screenplay at the Lift-off Global Awards 2018. It was broadcast on French TV by Canal+ in 2018 and 2019. Zak's short film THE ELEVATOR PITCH opened the London Short Film Festival and received a Vimeo Staff Pick.

Zak also works as an Editor for TV and Film, with credits including Netflix's F1: DRIVE TO SURVIVE, and Pulse Films’ docuseries ‘ANATOMY OF A CHAMPION’.

Director’s Statement

I wanted to make a ten minute film that worked as an entertaining concept and a wry social commentary all over the course of a single cab journey.

I was loosely inspired by Jafar Tanahi's semi-fictional 'Taxi Tehran', where he portrayed a whole society through otherwise unconnected taxi rides. Planting go-pro cameras around his car and working as a cab driver in Tehran in secret, Tanahi was able to capture real moments of upheaval, humour and unexpected beauty. In my film I wanted to capture a sort of rugged naturalism in the performances and filming style, occasionally elevated for comedic effect. I wanted it to feel like two believable Londoners with opposing values hashing out their frustrations and differences, eventually arriving at something meaningful.

What does it mean to be 'two stars short'? By whose standards and ratings do we abide? Does any of it matter? Please, have a watch and find out.