Sherwan Haji’s My Name is Hope has won the 2025 Jussi Award for Best Short Film

The film is set in a Syrian prison, and the events are seen through a small opening in the cell door, from the perspective of a young student. The protagonist sees only fragments of what is happening, leaving plenty of room for the viewer’s imagination. The film is based on real-life, notorious torture centers from the era of Syria’s now-deposed dictator Bashar al-Assad. The film’s visuals are powerful and believable — and it is quite surprising that the film was shot entirely on the Aalto University campus in Otaniemi. 

My Name is Hope won the Grand Prize in the domestic competition at the Love and Anarchy 2025 festival and has now won the 2025 Jussi Award for Best Short Film.   

Sherwan Haji is a Syrian-Finnish actor, filmmaker, and screenwriter. He graduated from the Damascus Academy of Dramatic Arts and moved to Finland in 2010 to continue his studies at ELO. Sherwan Haji also holds a degree from Anglia Ruskin University in the UK. Haji has worked with Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki and played the lead role in the film The Other Side of Hope (2017). In 2012, he founded a production company called Lion’s Line Ltd. and has produced documentaries, films, and art workshops.