Marlene Dirven

composer | FILMMAKER

WORK

Below is a selection of my artistic work.* I also love sharing my practice through teaching and mentoring, and regularly give workshops on screenwriting. For inquiries and further information, get in touch via the Contact page.

*List does not include my academic or my commercial work. If you’re curious, do reach out.


Watch my film music showreel 2024 here:

FILM WORK

FEATURE FILM

VideoVeterans (2026) – documentary

co-writer, composer

director: Rob Rombout

with financial support from Belgian film fund VAF

Five Nights Shomal (2024) – fiction

writer, director, composer

pilot film premiered at EYE Filmmuseum titled ‘me, I was once a girl’

featuring: Henriette Nagel, Ramez Nourzada

cinematography: Keren Bergman

editing: Reinier Zoutendijk

sound design: Luuk Bakkum, Sarantoula Masatli

music programming: Xiangming Niu

assistant direction: Mats Licht

assistant DOP: Alle Dick Huppes, Kimlee Vatae Minkyeung

Listen to the music of Five Nights Shomal here:


SHORT FILM

Brazil (2025) – fiction

composer

director: Danilo Stanimirovic

Reenacting a reenactment (2024) – documentary

writer, director

cinematography: Kimlee Vatae Minkyeung

premiered at Netherlands Film Academy (NFA)

Between Elements (2022) – documentary

co-director with Rob Rombout and students of the Athens school of Visual Arts

premiered as opening film at PelDocFest 2022

Portraits (2021) – documentary

co-director with Rob Rombout and students of Nafplio University

premiered as opening film at PelDocFest 2021


VIDEO ART & INSTALLATIONS

Artistic Research Collection of 6 separate pieces on (the absence of) language, semiotics and music in film narrative:

a certain reconciliation (2024) – 28’51 looped

a physical representation of Lacan’s mirror stage, applied to a female character arc in search of new emancipatory narrative

cinematography by Keren Bergman and Kimlee Vatae Minkyeung, acting Henriette Nagel and Ramez Nourzada

exposition at NFA

verblendungen (2023) – 1’15

a tribute to Kaija Saariaho, transducing her music into verbal and sonic associations

la puanteur était si forte (2023) – 5’07

study with actor Ramez Nourzada on musical repetition and the annihilation of language – after a poem by Baudelaire

whether the light reaches for us (2023) – 4’35

spoken word over videoscape on the development of story since the beginning of evolution; a critical test-case on the potential of the 3-act structure as a universal narrative

Mother (2023) – 2’16

a mute study on opposite structures and desire in Greimas’ semiotics square, and how the absent becomes a present, almost visible subject

On the purpose of language (2022) – 3’31

archival footage rewritten into 3 short chapters on language, in neuroscience and in society


Artistic Research Collection of 5 separate pieces on imaginary encounters between inaccessible worlds – premiered at the Netherlands Film Academy:

a story in three shots (2023) – 2’52

short piece on how the external world arrives into the walls of a home, written during a masterclass by Matías Piñeiro – including original music

صفر الزليج / voyage des azulejos (2023) – 9’52

an audiovisual journey to explore the connections between Safavid and contemporary Dutch civilisations

sofre haft sin // suffering of sins (2023) – 12’10

spoken word piece on ethical warfare between the West and Iran, seated on a table with objects, written during a masterclass with sound artist Carlos Casas

love letters to SVR / I have forgotten what part of me is yours or mine (2023) – 2’47

video art piece with archival footage on a fictional encounter with Sergei Rachmaninov, one hundred years apart – including original music

moving out (2022) – 1’10

a visual reflection on relocating away from your loved ones, written during a masterclass by Nobunye Levin


MUSIC & PERFORMANCE

feistritz dances (2025) – 4’22

four movements for cello and violin

  • up in the tower room – 1′
  • birds over the castle – 1’50
  • a dark romance – 1’09
  • dance in the knight’s hall – 1′

performed in Maarn with violinist Aarti Prins

gale and gust (2025) – 4’58

bossa nova for guitar, percussion, voice, cello, violin

part of an EP for Revive Studios

in the village (2024) – 3’13

for cello and voice

part of an EP for Revive Studios

sleep temple (2024) – 4’14

for cello and voice

part of an EP for Revive Studios

girl city room (2024) – 1’34

composed during a masterclass with composer Oliver Coates at Beeld & Geluid, Hilversum

gham makhor – a cry of sorrow (2023) – 15’

a single performer musical theatre reflection on the state of the world

performed at NFA

you always gave it water (2023) – 13’28

  • you always gave it water – 6’13
  • echoing drumming – 3’10
  • breathing tuning humming crying – 4’05

for videoscape, cello, piano and vocals

performed at NFA

tuning into Tehran (2023) – 3’31

for cithare and soundscape

composed during a masterclass with sound artist Carlos Casas

journey to light (2023) – 8’38

for cello and contemporary dance

performed in Amsterdam with dancer-choreographer Fernando Oliveira

buckwheat on cello (2023) – 3’08

for cello


WRITING

SCREENPLAYS

VideoVeterans (2026), feature documentary, dir. Rob Rombout

Poessie (2025), short fiction

Five Nights Shomal (2024), feature fiction

High Tea (2023), short fiction

L’anxiété très rationnelle de Mlle Ludley (2023), short fiction

Sergei’s Room (2023), short fiction

POETRY

a rotting carcass (2022) performed at NFA

waking (2022), written as part of a Masterclass by Kate Briggs, performed at NFA

stolling (NL) / coagulation (EN) (2019), nominated for a national poetry prize

kerosine (2018), nominated and published in the bundle ‘Goudlicht en Avondschijn’ as top-100 in the Dutch national Turing Poetry Competition

old love (2017), nominated for a national poetry prize

duister van ons goud (2010), nominated for a national poetry prize