Mila Zhluktenko & Daniel Asadi Faezi

“Aralkum” (2022, 14 min.) was the first video work codirected by Mila Zhluktenko and Daniel Asadi Faezi. The film serves as a memorial to the Aral Sea, the fourth-largest inland sea in the world until the 1960s, though it has now almost entirely dried up. Its transformation into a barren desert landscape is particularly visible in the border region between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. A vast expanse of arid land (the “Aralkum” of the title) now covers the area that was once a body of water. The video conveys with striking clarity how human intervention, specifically the Soviet Union’s destructive irrigation policies in support of cotton production, gradually destroyed an entire ecosystem and the life it sustained.

"In retrospect" (2025, 14 min.) focuses on Munich's Olympia-Einkaufszentrum. The video work brings together three different historical moments and demonstrates that racist violence is not an isolated phenomenon, but part of a continuing historical trajectory. 

About the artists
Mila Zhluktenko and Daniel Asadi Faezi studied documentary filmmaking at the University of Television and Film (HFF) Munich. Their films have been screened and honoured at numerous international festivals, including the award for Best Short Film at Visions du Réel for “Aralkum”. “In retrospect” premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, and it received the German Short Film Award.

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