CASA CINE 2025 - SCREENWRITERS

Presenting the CASA CINE 2025 residents! From May 6 to 27, we'll be welcoming the following writer-directors at the Château de la Napoule to develop their first feature films: Abbas Taheri (Iran) and his project Dwellers of the Sea, Diogo Salgado (Portugal) with A Seat at the Table, Gustavo Bockos (Peru) with Cuando Regrese Te Abrazo and Lauriane Lagarde (France) with Mon père, ce voleur.

Abbas Taheri

Writer-Director
Iran

Feature fiction

Dwellers of the Sea

Abbas Taheri is an Iranian director and screenwriter. He first pursued a career in civil engineering, but discovered a deep passion for cinema, leading him to filmmaking. He earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree in cinema from the Tehran University of Art and received a grant from Iran’s Elites Foundation. In 2019, he published Festival Gaze, a postcolonial analysis of Iranian cinema in international festivals.

Abbas Taheri has written and directed over seven short fiction and documentary films. In his earliest works, he focused on personal and emotional themes, later growing increasingly concerned with social issues in Iran. His latest works, such as Aban (2022) and There is No Friend’s House (2023), both co-productions between France and Iran, tackle pressing problems and the oppression faced by various minorities.

His films have been widely screened and acclaimed at international film festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, Oberhausen, Palm Springs, Tallinn Black Nights and IndieLisboa. In 2024, Abbas Taheri was selected for the Agora Short Lab at the Thessaloniki Film Festival.

He is currently working on his new short film, Atmospheric Instability, and developing his first feature film, Dwellers of the Sea, a deeply personal tale that sheds a light on the struggles of women and minorities in Iran’s non-central regions.

Diogo Salgado

Writer-Director
Portugal

Feature fiction

A Seat at the Table

Diogo Salgado is a Portuguese director. After studying Fine Arts, he graduated in Film from the Lisbon Theatre and Film School, in the branch of cinematography. He holds a master’s degree in communication sciences, specializing in Cinema and Television, at the NOVA University Lisbon. During and after his studies, he worked as a cinematographer and as part of the directing teams for several short and feature films.

His first short film as a director, Through the Haze (2020) was screened at Festival de Cannes as part of the Official Selection, competing for the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film, after having premiered at Curtas Vila do Conde Festival where it won the prize for Best Film in the national competition. It went on to be screened at over 30 festivals, emblematic cinemas and exhibitions around the world, winning several awards. His second short film Under the Mountain’s Shadow premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2025.

Diogo Salgado is also a screenwriting and cinematography trainer as part of initiatives that introduce young people to the art of film. He is the founder of Bravado Filmes, a production company based in Portugal.

He is currently working on Subtraction, a documentary and experimental short film, and writing his first feature A Seat at the Table, a fiction that paints a dreamlike universe, capturing the ethereal haze surrounding a woman as she drifts through the emptiness and solitude of her home after the departure of her sons.

Gustavo Bockos

Writer-Director
Peru

Feature Film

Cuando Regrese te Abrazo

Gustavo Bockos is a Peruvian director and visual artist currently based in São Paulo, Brazil. With a background in illustration and art direction, many of his works have won international awards and been exhibited in art galleries around the world. His distinct style and aesthetic have led him to direct spots for major brands, recognized by over twenty international awards, including the Cannes Lions and El Ojo de Iberoamerica.

In 2023, his first short film Takanakuy premiered at Clermont-Ferrand, where it won a Special Mention from the Jury. Takanakuy has since been screened at dozens of international festivals, receiving awards such as the Abrazo du Meilleur Court Métrage at Biarritz, and the Prix Révélation du Court-Métrage in Toulouse.

As a Peruvian filmmaker of multiple heritage, Gustavo Bockos’ work is rooted in historical concerns and interrogates collective mythologies. Hailing from a place that is rich in narratives but scarce in production resources, he is committed to authentically and meaningfully tell the stories of his country, believing in the universal appeal of Latin American filmmaking.

At CASA CINE, Gustavo Bockos will be working on the writing of his first feature film Cuando Regrese te Abrazo, a historical drama based on his youthful experiences being raised by Peru’s first female minister of justice during the country’s biggest social uprising.

Lauriane Lagarde

Writer-Director
France

Feature fiction

Mon père, ce voleur

Lauriane Lagarde is a French director and screenwriter. After a first degree in social economy, she studied documentary filmmaking at university (CREADOC, Angoulême) and later fiction writing through the Films en Bretagne association after winning the ESTRAN competition. She has directed 6 documentaries for television, including À part entière (2015), selected at the Itinérances festival in Alès in 2016, L’étincelle (2017) and Desamours (2022). Lauriane Lagarde’s first short fiction film, À l'horizon (2016) was screened at various festivals in France and received the SACD/Beaumarchais prize. Un Corps Brûlant (2022), her second short film, was selected for over 30 national and international film festivals, among which Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, where it won the Queer Métrage prize, as well as Uppsala, Grenoble and Oberhausen.

In her cinema, Lauriane Lagarde challenges stereotypes, often portraying liberated women and placing overlooked or invisible characters at the center of her stories. She is in the process of writing her next documentary, Prendre soin du vivant, while also developing Mauvaise Fréquentation, a short fiction film.

At CASA CINE, she will be developing her first feature fiction, Mon père, ce voleur. Over the course of a summer on the Côte d'Azur, the film subtly evokes the gap between two worlds and the feeling of loss of bearings and injustice from a child's point of view.

©️ Slim Aarons

©️ Martin Parr

SERENA Productions and La Napoule Art Foundation once again thank all the candidates for their applications and congratulate the participants of the 2025 edition of CASA CINE, which will take place at the Château de la Napoule, from May 6th to 27th.