At just 16 years old, Soraya creates striking drawings and sculptures – poetic, powerful and yet marked by a profound darkness. For her, art is far more than a form of expression: it is a survival strategy, a source of hope and a means of self-assertion.
For years, the young Afghan woman has been trying to escape a violent husband in Iran and reach her mother in Austria. Over a period of five years, Soraya documents her own life using her mobile phone. Director Mehrdad Oskouei accompanies this process from a distance and, together with her, creates an extraordinarily intimate cinematic testimony of flight, resistance and artistic self-empowerment.
Followed by a discussion with the protagonist and co-director Soraya Akhlaghi.