Zion Lacroix is a Turkish film director and audiovisual storyteller based in Milan, born in Istanbul, 1992 as Doğa Vurgun. After his acquaintance with the underground culture, he shaped his stories around absurdism, skepticism, voyeurism and the intersections of pornography and (initially) childhood traumas. 

Encountering Dominique Appia’s painting “Entre les Trous de la Mémoire” in his preschool period, he could not get away from the implications of the painting for years. Zion started making films to see how people, including himself, escape and recreate themselves in their own reality. 

In his projects, which he devised by distorting the pop aesthetics of the 2000s, he deals with self-escape, dulness, self-denial and marginalization of society.

Here are 9 things you need to know about him:

  1. He has already been writing stories since elementary school. But then he watched the movie “Benny’s Video” by Haneke, when I was 12 which pushed him to wanting to become a director.
  1. Turning point in his career: in 2018, he got an opportunity to work with Bvlgari in Milan. 
  1. He never had a mentor or father figure in his career. He’s a self made artist.
  1. One of his main inspirations is “Entre les trous de la memoire.” A painting  by Dominique Appia.
  1. Directors he dreams to collaborate with one day: Innarritu, Nanni Moretti, Haneke
  1. In his work he focuses on ordinariness, self-escape, dullness, and self-denial.
  1. If he could change anything in the fashion and entertainment industry it would be the practice of fast-consuming.
  1. He defines his relationship with technology like this: “I’m kinda old oldschool but trying to keep myself updated with it”

“Les Rideaux Invisibles ou un Vendredi Gris” plot is his favorite work to date:  “This is how people feel on gray fridays and how people cover their somber minds with invisible curtains. This is what lies behind.”