Iranian filmmakers Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani talk about their hand-drawn, deeply personal film, created under extreme political and financial hardship, about a captain suffering from PTSD who lives with his daughter, wants to be a caring father, but struggles with a harsh life.
War, and its aftermath, leave deep scars, both physical and psychological, that last generations. Written, produced, and directed by Iranian filmmakers Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani, In the Shadow of the Cypress is a beautiful, minimalist, hand-drawn 2D animated short film, made without dialogue, which explores themes of family, sacrifice, and the trauma of war.
Created under immense political and economic hardship, the film tells the story of a former ship captain, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who lives with his daughter in a humble house located by the Persian Gulf. Together, they have to confront the challenges of a harsh, isolated life. Despite the captain's deep desire to be a devoted and caring father, he finds himself unable to fulfill his role and connect with his daughter in the way that he longs to. One morning, their lives change forever when an unforeseen event occurs. Whether this event proves to be a newfound source of hope, or an additional burden remains to be seen.
In the Shadow of the Cypress has won awards at Tribeca, Animayo, LA Short, and Spark Animation, where it was honored as Best in Show. Not to mention it has also been nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 97th Academy Awards - which takes place Sunday, March 2 - alongside four other short films: Beautiful Men, Wander to Wonder, Magical Candies, and Yuck!
AWN has interviewed filmmakers from each of the five shorts to discuss the origin of their film, learn about its production, and better understand why they chose to tell this particular story.
Molayemi and Sohani spoke about their creative journey, the challenges of making an independent animated film in Iran, and the deeply personal themes woven into their work. Before reading the interview, check out the trailer:
Dan Sarto: Where did the idea for this film come from?
Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani: Our initial idea revolved around emotional bonds within a two-person family; a family consisting of a single parent and their child. We wanted to emphasize the importance of family, and the sacrifices parents make for their children. It's also worth mentioning that a major concern for us at the beginning of this project was the issue of immigration and families being separated due to sanctions, economic hardship, and the political situation in Iran – a significant problem in our country today.
The story underwent a long and complex journey over the course of about a year to reach its final form. During that year, many of the initial ideas, such as the immigration theme, were removed, and new ideas emerged. For example, the theme of veterans with PTSD arose organically during our numerous brainstorming sessions.
It's important to note that we relied mostly on our own personal life experiences, particularly our relationships with our fathers, to create this film. Throughout that year, while developing the story, we were also simultaneously working on defining and developing the film's visual style. This parallel development of the story and visual style allowed the two elements to influence each other. Visual ideas impacted the story, and conversely, story ideas influenced the film's visual style.
DS: What made this the right time to tell this story? What emotions or messages did you want to convey?
HM / SS: Actually, at first, we just wanted to tell an engaging story, and through it, share our feelings with the audience. We didn't intend to give viewers a specific message or moral lesson. It seems there's no real need to create art unless the artist's heart is overflowing with emotion. That's when making art feels absolutely necessary. We believe a film should only be made when you simply can't not make it.
Another question we should ask ourselves is: if a film or artwork were removed from the world of art and cinema, would its absence be felt? For example, Da Vinci's “Mona Lisa,” Picasso's “Guernica,” and Van Gogh's “Sunflowers” each added something to the art world, and if they didn't exist, art would be poorer. That's how we approach filmmaking. Our goal was to leave behind something meaningful. Whether we succeeded is something film critics and experts will have to say.
As we mentioned before, we used the emotions from our personal experiences, and our relationships with our fathers, to develop the story and create the characters in our film. We both shared concerns about the quality of our relationships with our parents. Interestingly, it was only after making this film that I [Hossein] was able to forgive my father after many years, and I [Shirin] was able to share feelings about my father, who is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. It's worth noting that he lost an eye while fighting in the 1980s, and still has shrapnel fragments in his head, which sometimes causes him to act violently.
DS: How did you develop the film’s animation style?
HM / SS: As we mentioned earlier, we simultaneously worked on the visual development of the film while developing the story. Sometimes, visual development sparked ideas for the story, and vice versa.
The visual style should serve the film, not overshadow it, and disrupt the story and drama. Initially, we wanted the setting to resemble southern Iran and incorporate more visual elements into the film. However, we later decided against it, reminding ourselves that the story should be given the top priority over everything else in this film. We aimed to keep the space and visual atmosphere of the film simple and minimal. This minimalism, on the one hand, kept the viewer focused on the story, prioritizing it, and on the other hand, emphasized the loneliness of the father and daughter and their isolation in the middle of nowhere.
This simplicity in the film's visual style does not mean that we did not feel the need for attractive images and spaces. One of our challenges was how to keep the film visually engaging for the viewer without using many visual elements. Therefore, we wanted the film's visual style to be simple and humble yet attractive and eye-catching.
Overall, technical showing off and creating technical complexities were not our priority. On the other hand, we should acknowledge that, due to financial constraints, we did not have much room for technical ambitions. However, we are pleased that we prioritized the story over technical ambition and show off.
DS: What were the biggest challenges you faced during the production?
HM / SS: We faced many challenges, some of them technical. For example, creating a 20-minute film without dialogue that would still be engaging and captivating for the audience was a demanding job and a major challenge. But our biggest challenges were outside the film itself, in our daily lives, and how they affected the project. When you live in a dictatorship under severe sanctions, you have to be a problem-solver, dealing with issues every single day.
While we were working on our film, prices were rising daily, and our currency was losing value. We dealt with slow, filtered internet and had to use various VPNs to bypass the censorship. Every day, we had to check the prices of gold and foreign currencies, and instead of focusing on our film, we were constantly worried about the political and economic situation, prices, and the future of ourselves and our families.
We constantly had to increase our team members' salaries so they could make ends meet, and of course, we were never able to pay them what they truly deserved. The price of computers and equipment kept going up. Once, early in the project, our Cintiq broke down due to power fluctuations, and we couldn't afford to buy another one, so we had to use regular pen tablets for the rest of the project. All this while our income wasn't increasing in proportion to the rising prices.
Besides the economic issues, Hossein was struck by Alopecia Areata, an autoimmune disease, which, in addition to its enormous costs, created an emotional crisis for us. Also, due to the sanctions, many skilled professionals had left the country, and we only had a few part-time animators to work on the project.
DS: How long did production take, and how large was your team?
HM / SS: It took us over six and a half years of non-stop work to finish In the Shadow of the Cypress. If we had had fewer financial and non-financial problems and additional skilled people, we could have made this film much sooner. Our team consisted of about 15 people, but in reality, most of them joined us in the final year of the project. The main workload for several years fell on us two as the directors, plus one or at most two other people.
DS: Any special aspects of the film you’d like to point out?
HM / SS: We literally fought tooth and nail to make this film. The reason we endured so many problems over several years was that we believed in what we were doing, and we felt a sense of mission and responsibility to make this film. We wanted to create a valuable and unique work of art, like a hand-woven carpet. So instead of using techniques and software that could have helped us finish the film faster, we chose hand-drawn 2D animation to give our film a more artistic feel. We also decided not to use any dialogue in the film because we wanted to go beyond political and geographical boundaries and communicate directly with a wider audience around the world without language barriers. We also believed that silent films are closer to pure art and the original nature of cinema.
In Iranian art, culture, and literature, the use of symbols and metaphors, as well as indirect transmission of messages, is very common. There are many symbols and metaphors in this film, most of which entered the story unconsciously, and if a viewer does not discover any of them, it will not be a problem because they can simply enjoy the story itself. Visually, we used a small amount of mixed media technique, like using seasoning and spices to cook food. In fact, we did not want the mixed media technique to appear as the dominant technique in this film. What was more important to us was the story and cinema itself.
DS: What are your hopes as you enter the final push of awards season and your festival run?
HM / SS: Well, it seems pretty pointless and meaningless if a filmmaker's only goal is to win awards and accolades. But we have to admit that from a practical standpoint, awards can endorse a filmmaker and open up more and better opportunities for them in their future career. So, if we say that accolades don't matter, we haven't been realistic.
Perhaps the first reward of this film was the film itself. The fact that we were able to finish it under such extremely difficult conditions in our country was a miracle in itself. But overall, we won very prestigious awards, including being honored at Tribeca, Animayo, LA Shorts, and Spark Animation. We received a lot of praise from professionals like John Musker, Joanna Quinn, Tomm Moore, and Pete Docter. Many families of veterans with PTSD in and outside of Iran contacted us and expressed their gratitude. Moreover, one of the most important rewards we received was bringing joy to the tired and disappointed people of Iran because of the Oscar nomination.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
