Mercer Union and TIFF Wavelengths Presents hosts the Toronto premiere of Rouzbeh Akhbari’s debut feature, Crossings: Kaleh Ziyarat (2026). An experimental documentary filmed between the Caspian lowlands and the Strait of Hormuz, Crossings traces the undercurrents of sanctioned economies, revealing how informal trade and rumour sustain movement in a region increasingly defined by constraint. Through archival re-animation and documentary observation, the film follows the informal livestock trade that coils beneath the official infrastructures of the International North South Transport Corridor.
Crossings: Kaleh Ziyarat (2026) with Rouzbeh Akhbari is presented by TIFF Wavelengths Presents in partnership with Mercer Union alongside the exhibition Rouzbeh Akhbari: Of Wool and Diesel, on view at Mercer Union from September 26, 2026 to January 23, 2027.
Image: Rouzbeh Akhbari, still from Crossings: Kaleh Ziyarat, 2026. Courtesy the artist.
December 9
6:30pm – 9:30pm
Artist Bio
Rouzbeh Akhbari
Rouzbeh Akhbari (b. 1992, Tehran) is an artist, filmmaker and human geographer based between Toronto and Lisbon. His moving-image practice sits at the intersection of documentary storytelling, fieldwork and poetic speculation. Working across film and installation, his projects investigate the political and ecological entanglements of trade and infrastructures across various geographies, tracing how the forces of empire continue to be inscribed in material landscapes.
Akhbari’s solo and collaborative works have been presented internationally at major film festivals and institutions, including Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Tirana International Film Festival (Winner, Best Video Art & Experimental, 2024), Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (Winner, Prix George for Best International Documentary, 2020), Media City Film Festival, London Short Film Festival and DocsLisboa among many others. His films and installations have also been exhibited widely at museums and public institutions including Jameel Arts Centre (Dubai), M HKA Museum of Contemporary Art (Antwerp), Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven), Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto), MAC VAL (Paris), Villa Arson (Nice) and Si Shang Art Museum (Bejing).
He is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, most recently the Calouste Gulbenkian Production award (2025) and Alserkal Foundation Research Fellowship (2025–27). Akhbari holds an MFA in Visual Studies from the University of Toronto and is currently a PhD candidate in Human Geography at the same institution.
Akhbari is one-half of Pejvak, the critically acclaimed artist duo with Felix Kalmenson.