Mantas Kvedaravicius was born in Birzai, Lithuania in 1976. He holds a Master's Degree in cultural anthropology from the University of Oxford and is currently completing his PhD dissertation and a book manuscript on the affects of pain at the University of Cambridge. Kvedaravicius has taught university courses on religion, law, and political theory in New York, and since 2006 he has been conducting research on torture and disappearances in the North Caucasus. Barzakh is his first film. Kvedaravicius is also an underwater archaeologist. He lives in Lithuania raising his two children.