Richard Ladkani

As director and cinematographer, Richard Ladkani has gained international recognition for numerous award-winning films. "Sea of Shadows", a National Geographic documentary, executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival 2019, as well as numerous awards at prestigious festivals around the world. The film illustrates how Mexican drug cartels and the Chinese Mafia, have declared war on the Sea of Cortez, one of the world's most beautiful ecosystems for money and greed, resulting in the possible extinction of the vaquita, the smallest whale on earth. The Netflix Original "The Ivory Game", also executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, was shortlisted for an Academy Award in 2017 and won numerous prizes including the Genesis, the Cinema for Peace Award and the Golden Panda. This investigative thriller-doc, on the illegal trade of ivory and the extinction of elephants, had its world premiers at the prestigious Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals and helped bring an end to the legal ivory trade in China. In early 2015 Richard and his wife Anita Ladkani founded Malaika Pictures. The name is the Swahili word for "Angel" and also the middle name of their first-born daughter. Malaika Pictures produces films that shine a bright spotlight on the most pressing environmental and political issues of our time. Their newest project in development is a feature documentary on the Amazon Rainforest, as well as a narrative feature film based on the bestselling book "City of Thorns", a Romeo & Julia type love story that focuses on the life of refugees in the living hell of Dadaab (Kenya), the largest UN Camp in the world. His most renowned films include "Escape over the Himalayas", "The Devil's Miner", "Jane's Journey" (shortlisted for Academy Award); "Vatican - The Hidden World" and "Gas Monopoly". Richard has photographed more than 50 documentaries, of which he directed or co-directed eleven. He lives near Vienna Austria, with his wife and two daughters. For more information please visit www.richardladkani.com or www.malaikapictures.com.