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Rattling Stick welcomes director Saman Kesh
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The filmmaker joins the Rattling Stick roster for representation in the UK and Netherlands.
Rattling Stick welcomes director Saman Kesh, a director whose work delivers a kaleidoscopic, jet-propelled journey - basically like strapping a human heart to a rocket ship.
Kesh arrives with a fresh assurance and poise, off the back of a run of work that feels like the natural evolution of a filmmaker who has always carved out his own distinct style of filmmaking that is unmistakably Kesh, cinematic world-building, comedy and artfully controlled weirdness.
Most recently, he directed Make It Possible for ACE Scholarships. Taking the idea of children imagining their future selves and running it gleefully through what Kesh calls “kid logic”: pink-lit spaceships, bubblegum-chewing NASA staff, a loveable robot and pencils brought to life through puppetry on set.
It’s an approach that gets to the heart of Kesh’s work: technology and craft in service of the idea, rather than the other way around. His collaborators on ACE coined these idiosyncratic details that populate his films: Keshisms.
ACE follows Harry’s Filthy Rich and Master Craftsman, two films that demonstrate another side of Kesh’s filmmaking. Here, he takes a simple comic proposition and blows it out into a fully realised, absurdly detailed world. Filthy Rich turns a daydream about smelling expensive into a sprawling half-century tale of oil, money, masculinity and gloriously questionable taste.
For Stu Bentham (MD/ EP) at Rattling Stick, it’s Kesh’s instinct for taking an idea somewhere special that makes him such a natural fit for the company.
Kesh is exactly the kind of filmmaker we want at Rattling Stick. We’re incredibly excited to have him here. His exuberant, riotous imagination and problem-solving neuro-alchemy shine through in everything he does. Clarity of idea, kinetic performances, and unique humour combine seamlessly in Kesh's extraordinary world-building.
For Kesh, the move marks another step in a career that has always resisted being defined neatly in one box. Across commercials, iconic music videos and longer-form filmmaking, connected by a restless instinct to push an idea further.
Kesh’s work is widely recognised. His breakthrough video Luv Deluxe won Best Music Video at SXSW, an award he picked up again for Stamina. His work has also collected Clio, Emmy, ADDY and Young Director Award honours and landed him in the prestigious Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase. Along the way, he has amassed 17 Vimeo Staff Picks, a testament to a director whose work not only reliably finds an audience but is sought out and shared well beyond the industry. Fifteen years after his first SXSW win, Ed Sheeran’s Azizam brought him back to the festival with another Best Music Video nomination in 2026.
Kesh joins Rattling Stick at a moment of renewed creative energy for the company, bringing his experience and unmistakable filmmaking voice to a roster that combines established filmmaking talent with a new generation of distinctive directors.
His recent work indicates that there should be plenty more Keshisms to come...
