Iranian filmmaker charts her dangerous five-year search for safety and family

Soraya Akhlaghi, an Iranian filmmaker, documents five years of flight, failed border crossings and attempts to find safety and reunite with her mother. Filmed on her phone from the age of 16, her story shows how precarious life can remain for refugees, even after repeated efforts to escape.

Co-directed remotely with Mehrdad Oskouei, the film follows Soraya between Istanbul, Tehran and dangerous escape routes, where smugglers’ journeys often end in failure. Her drawings and sculptures, featuring a moon, a fox, a clown and demons, become animated sequences that express longing, fear and resilience. The film also shows refugee children making a small shelter in a forest, presenting art as a way to imagine and claim a sense of home.