Mazdak Vafaei Shalmani, also known as ZEZ XXI, is a Franco-Iranian writer-director and journalist whose work bridges urban culture, social cinema, and investigative storytelling. For over fifteen years, he has helped shape the French-speaking rap media landscape, notably through his contributions to Rapunchline, before collaborating with Vice France and France Maghreb. These experiences gave him a profound understanding of reality — the street, the voice, and the forgotten faces.
In 2018, he founded HellSinky, an independent creative label and media platform exploring the boundaries between music, society, and visual art. Through this venture, he has produced several remarkable works in which documentary filmmaking becomes both a poetic and social act.
His book HELL SINKY extends this vision — a visual and textual manifesto on the aesthetics of truth, the memory of places, and the responsibility of the gaze.
Main Audiovisual Works
1. P13 – If I Had
A short film inspired by a true story, co-written with Dylan Duby, who is currently incarcerated.
The screenplay, written under the direction of ZEZ XXI, explores guilt and the loss of self in the face of fate. Set in Belgium, the story questions the boundary between individual destiny and moral responsibility.
👉 Work: Screenwriting, narrative design, and directing support.
👉 Production: P13/ HellSinky / Diversity Record.
👉 Themes: Redemption, memory, moral tension, identity.
2. The Metro Baby
A documentary inspired by the real-life story of Gued’1, a rapper abandoned as a child in the Paris subway — a case that once led Le Monde to headline “The Metro Baby.”
In this film, ZEZ XXI retraces Gued’1’s journey from delinquency to music, posing a haunting question: Did he ever truly have a choice?
The work is both intimate and political, addressing social determinism, personal reconstruction, and the healing power of artistic creation.
👉 Role: Writing, directing, artistic direction, and editing.
👉 Production: HellSinky / UrbanTrackz.
👉 Coverage: Rapunchline, Générations, BooskaP.
3. Echo
Originally commissioned as a musical project around the song “Le Rêve Français” by Color Music Publishing, Echo evolved under the direction of ZEZ XXI and Debora Ramos into a fully-fledged social documentary.
HellSinky chose to abandon the traditional promotional approach in favor of a radically different vision: capturing the raw emotion of migrants and telling their stories through direct, unfiltered testimonies.
The film adopts a deconstructed narrative structure, giving precedence to lived experiences and silence, within a minimalist and immersive visual aesthetic.
👉 Production: HellSinky × Debora Ramos × Color Music Publishing.
👉 Role: Writing, interviews, directing, and visual conception.
👉 Purpose: To awaken collective awareness around the human challenges of migration.
Press Background (selection, without summaries)
Vice France — examples of published articles
- “Chasin’ Skinheads: Inside France’s Forgotten Antifascist Crews” — by Mazdak Vafaei Shalmani & Alice Papin (2015).
Link: Chasing Skinheads with the Black Dragons in 1980s Paris
VICE - “The Racist Rapper: When Provocation Becomes a Political Statement” — by Mazdak Vafaei Shalmani & Papin (2015).
Link: French Nightmare : on a rencontré Kroc Blanc, rappeur nationaliste
VICE
France Maghreb — published example
- “A Turbulent Night for KLS la Rafale (Vigneux-sur-Seine)” — article edited/credited to Mazdak Vafaei Shalmani (April 22, 2020).
Link: Actualités – FRANCE MAGHREB 2
Technical Skills
Concrete tools and areas of expertise:
- Filmmaking & cinematography
- Editing (Premiere Pro)
- Documentary & screenplay writing
- Interview conducting / directing non-professional actors
- Visual communication (Photoshop, After Effects, social media)
✍️ 7. Publications and Works
- Book: HELL SINKY (HellSinky Editions, 2024)
- Notable articles: Vice France – Les Black Dragons (2015); France Maghreb – Héritages croisés (2020)
- Platforms: HellSinky.art, UrbanTrackz.fr, chief editor at Rapunchline.fr since 2015
INSTAGRAM : @zez_xxi