Production Team
Nina Zehri — Director of Photography (U.S.)
Nina Zehri is a Pakistani cinematographer and filmmaker working across narrative, documentary, and experimental film. Informed by South Asian visual traditions, her work explores memory, spirituality, and feminine experience, often centering women and underrepresented communities.
Her cinematography has been presented internationally, including Beep Test at the Tasveer Film Festival and through Alaska Airlines’ in-flight program; Tell Me When You Are Home in the Sinophone Competition at the Beijing International Film Festival; and TICK at Dances With Films New York and Salem Horror Fest. She has also contributed to documentary, narrative, and commercial projects for Vice, FIFA, and Google.
Her upcoming short, Darvesh, follows two Muslim women navigating devotion and longing. Rooted in Sufi influences, its cinematography uses composed, lingering shots and fluid, drifting movement to explore closeness and distance, desire and restraint, and to place women at the center of spiritual experience.
As one of the relatively few women cinematographers from Pakistan working in a male-dominated field, Zehri brings attention to stories and perspectives often left unseen.
Maja Dennhag — Director of Photography (Sweden)
Maja Dennhag is a Stockholm-based cinematographer working across feature films and television. Her credits include Hjärtat, Göta Kanal – Vinna eller försvinna, and Isabella Carbonell’s Dogborn, which premiered in competition at Venice Critics’ Week. Dennhag received the Sven Nykvist Award for Best Cinematography for her work on the film. Her recent work includes the SVT series Hundarna (Burden of Justice), selected for the official competition at Series Mania. She first collaborated with Sara Jordenö on The Set House in 2010, followed by Diamond People and Civil Society.
Tushar Gidwani — Sound Recordist / Second Unit Cinematography
Tushar Gidwani is a sonic and visual artist working across documentary, experimental film, cinematography, and sound design. His work explores migration, queerness, food, and cultural memory. His films have been presented at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, Huret & Spector Gallery, Rhizome, and the Museum of Science, Boston. Formerly a creative with VICE Asia, he is an MFA candidate, affiliate faculty member, and artist-in-residence at Emerson College.
Sarasa Kikuchi — 2nd Unit Cinematography
Sarasa Kikuchi is a Japanese director, cinematographer, and multimedia artist based in Boston. Her work spans narrative, documentary, experimental film, and installation. She has worked on more than twenty independent films, with projects presented at festivals including Tasveer Film Festival, GRRL HAUS Cinema, and Roxbury International Film Festival. She received her MFA from Emerson College and is a co-founder of Extended Family Productions.
Naiti Gámez — Supporting Cinematography
Naiti Gámez is a NYC- and Miami-based filmmaker. She has worked as a director and cinematographer on award-winning films and television series. Her film Love, Sadie premiered at the Festival de Cannes Short Film Corner.
Her film credits have screened at dozens of festivals worldwide, including Festival de Cannes, Sundance Film Festival, Berlinale, Camerimage, Tribeca Film Festival, and SXSW. Her television credits include work for HBO, Showtime, PBS, ESPN, MTV, Discovery Channel, and many more.
Her recent credits include directing two episodes of Monster Factory for Apple TV+, and serving as Director of Photography on Listening to Kenny G for HBO Max, Ailey for PBS, Through the Night, Hail Satan?, and KIKI.
Marvin Xu — Gaffer
Marvin Xu is a Taiwan-born gaffer and cinematographer working across narrative film, animation, and multimedia art. His image-making is grounded in collaboration and a strong visual sensibility, using light and composition to shape atmosphere, story, and emotional tone.
Sara Jordenö — Director
Sara Jordenö is an award-winning Swedish-born, U.S.-based filmmaker and writer whose work over more than two decades has shaped conversations around documentary form, collaboration, identity, and the ethics of representation.
Jordenö directed the critically acclaimed feature documentary KIKI, which she co-wrote with Twiggy Pucci Garçon. The film premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and in the Panorama Section at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Teddy Award for Best Documentary and Essay Film. KIKI was distributed theatrically by IFC Films in the United States and Folkets Bio in Sweden, released across seven territories, and nominated for a Film Independent Spirit Award. The film has continued to circulate internationally as an influential work on collaboration, authorship, and LGBTQ+ community representation.
Her filmography also includes the mid-length films Diamond People and Civil Society. Jordenö’s work has been presented at major international festivals and institutions, including the Venice Biennale, MoMA PS1, the Walker Art Center, and Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
The Swimmer has developed over many years, and many people have contributed to the project at different stages. The bios below introduce the film’s current team.
Performers
Ahmad Maher as “Arash”
Ahmad Maher is an Egyptian-born actor based in New York City. In The Swimmer, he portrays Arash. He moved to Sweden as a teenager, mirroring his character. Ahmad has worked professionally across Europe and the United States and was selected for the inaugural mentorship cohort at The Actors Center.
His theatre credits include Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World at The Public Theatre; Waiting for Lefty and Richard III at The Flea Theater; INVASION! at Ancram Center for the Arts, which received a Berkshire Theatre Critics Award; and The Jungle at Mixed Blood Theatre. The Jungle is set in the Calais refugee camp during the 2015–16 European refugee crisis.
His Film and TV credits include The Interrogator, opposite Stephen Fry, on FOX, Forever Mama with Riven Productions, You Gotta Dance for It with Tin Tin Pictures, Threnody with Purple Duck, which received Best Horror Short at PIFF, and Papers with SFFILM.
Aline Salloum as “Daria”
Aline Salloum is an actor and creative based in New York City and originally from Beirut, Lebanon. She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and a member of the Academy Company 2018–2019.
Her stage work includes The Threepenny Opera, directed by George Abud at Theater at St. Jean’s; The Misanthrope with Molière in the Park; Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World by Yussef El Guindi at The Public Theater; The Meltdown, which she co-created and performed at Rattlestick Theater; Only Remains Remain by Freya Powell at MoMA PS1; and Gratitude by Oren Safdie at Urban Stages.
Her most recent screen lead was in Synthetic, directed by Ismail Albukhari. In The Swimmer, she performs the role of Daria.
Post Production Team
Christoffer Sevholt — Post-production Coordinator and Editor at Shoot&Post
Christoffer Sevholt is a Sweden-based film editor and post-production professional working across documentary, fiction, short film, and television. His credits include My Friend Freddie, A Doll Named Glick, Are We Lost Forever, PainKiller and The Quiet Beekeeper. Together with four colleagues, he runs Shoot&Post, a post house collective, that has been around for 16 years in Gothenburg, providing postproduction services for films at the national and international market.