Is It Still Me
Logline: When an artist’s carefully ordered world begins to fracture - brushes vanish, doors lock unexpectedly - she must unravel her daughter’s lies to confront a truth that could shatter them both.
Synopsis: Fareeda, an artist of fifty years, has a calm, routine existence creating art inside her bright workspace. Her daughter Rula (20s) quite often joins her. The tea she brings has certainly become part of their comforting routine. But one day, Fareeda surely notices a change. Rula’s typical, usual warmth has turned into strange impatience. Extremely concerned for her daughter, she then suggests a quick weekend trip to their most favorite farm, hoping that such a change of scenery will help calm her strange anger.
At the farm, their bond briefly revives, but when it’s time to go, Rula keeps postponing when they leave. When Rula showers, Fareeda hears her complaining of another's increasing dementia, and a worrisome understanding dawns - Rula could be talking of her mother. Suddenly, as Fareeda walks all around, she sees her art studio in one of the farm's rooms - how can this be? Confused as well as disoriented, she realizes that they never left home.
She is quite distressed, so she looks all around in order to find her paintings disturbingly changed. Her once-vivid creations are therefore reduced to something that she no longer recognizes. As Fareeda's painful dementia realization sets in, Fareeda is determined to reclaim her dignity. That night, she makes a heartbreaking choice: to end her life on her own terms.
But as Fareeda fades into the good light, several screams suggest an intervention. The following day, she is indeed back inside her studio, painting as if nothing happened. Rula quite lovingly brings her cup of tea, and now their comforting routine resumes again. And yet, such a bittersweet truth still lingers: Fareeda is trapped within a loop she can no longer quite escape.
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Joanna AridaWriter
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Joanna AridaDirector
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Leen HamarnehProducer
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Omar SawalhaCinematographer
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Project Type:Short
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Genres:Drama, Thriller
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Runtime:18 minutes 30 seconds
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Completion Date:January 10, 2026
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Production Budget:30,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Jordan
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Language:Arabic, English
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
Joanna Arida is a Jordanian filmmaker, writer, and actor with a background in architecture. After her breakout role in AlRawabi School for Girls, she shifted toward writing and directing, graduating from New York Film Academy.
Over the past two years, Joanna has gained hands-on production experience across creative departments. She has written around ten short scripts. Her first short, Is It Still Me, is a recipient of the Jordan Film Fund 2024 grant.
She is actively developing her first feature and currently works under Bassel Ghandour, whose film Theeb won a BAFTA and was Oscar-nominated - shadowing his writing and development process. Joanna continues to explore storytelling from both sides of the camera, shaping her voice toward intimate, female-led psychological narratives rooted in the Arab world.
I'm terrified of dementia. I think many of us are. I recently found out that one family member was diagnosed with dementia. And then when my sister asked me what I would do if I got dementia, I would respond, "Oh, I would kill myself." Fair answer, I guess. But since we all understand what a gruesome disease it is, I do find it strange that when people learn that someone has it, at some level, they stop treating you as you, even if they don't exactly mean it. My vision for this film is to put the audience in a very specific position where they are trying to understand with Fareeda what is going on. I want people to know what it's like to slowly lose yourself, where all you can do is watch. Over and over again. We usually dedicate years to creating a sense of ourselves and how people see us, only to have it all hijacked by an incurable disease. In 'Is It Still Me,' I aim to capture the delicate and often heartbreaking moments that define this journey.
