Private Project

Paper's Sweet Scent


A writer is struggling to create his new work in his home, but he faces a significant challenge: hunger. This crisis traps him in a world between imagination and reality, pushing his artistic spirit towards destruction. In these difficult circumstances, the only way he finds to survive is by....

  • Sina Hadadi
    Director
  • Sina Hadadi
    Writer
  • Sina Hadadi
    Producer
  • Saman Bayat
    Key Cast
    "the author"
  • Negin Mohajerani
    Editor and Sound designer
  • Mehdi Ranjbar
    Sound Engineer
  • Mohamadsina Heidarizadeh
    Color correction
  • Ahura Leilaie
    Cinematographer
  • Maysam Khalili
    Assistant cinematographer
  • Noshin Adib
    Stage Manager
  • Ayda Shahi
    Make-up Artist
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Fantasy
  • Runtime:
    9 minutes 7 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 13, 2024
  • Country of Origin:
    Iran, Islamic Republic of
  • Country of Filming:
    Iran, Islamic Republic of
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Sina Hadadi

Sina Hadadi (Born on May 13, 2002) , An Iranian writer and filmmaker who began his film career at the age of 18, studying filmmaking at Azad Film Institute. Shortly after completing his studies, he directed his first short film, "Delusion". Since then, he has continued to produce independent short films with a group of friends, and his works have been showcased at various film festivals.
His films, including "Handwritten", "Dance in Nothing", and "Paper's Sweet Scent", explore social and human issues through an experimental cinematic lens. He seeks to use cinema to present his ideas and viewpoints on contemporary life’s challenges.
Currently, he is pursuing a degree in cinema and has plans to create additional short films as well as his first feature film.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The central question I explored while making this film is: how can artists sustain their lives while creating meaningful art in a world filled with pressure? This question is at the heart of my film.

The film is inspired by a personal experience during a challenging time when I struggled to make a new film, but the harsh circumstances of my environment prevented me. I felt as though I had become the character in my own film. This crisis, combined with the economic pressures faced by artists and writers in my country, pushed me to create this story. In a world where an artist must struggle to balance creating art with meeting their basic needs, this film delves into the challenges faced by a writer in such circumstances.

The film was made independently with minimal resources. Just like the main character, we too were under pressure. To capture the character’s mental space, we used minimal camera movement and a slow rhythm to convey his inner world and sense of isolation. The low lighting and the use of moonlight as the dominant light source serve as metaphors for the character’s mind and world, reflecting his life of melancholy, isolation, and hardship.

The goal of this film is to portray the life of an artist in less-developed societies—an artist who, despite being impoverished, must navigate both economic and artistic crises. The film’s visual and auditory design is meant to symbolize every moment as a representation of the character’s internal and external struggles for survival and creating art.

Through long takes, minimal camera movement, precise lighting, and a combination of sound and music, we aim to immerse the audience in the character's world—a world where hunger and the act of creating art are intertwined and symbolically bound, overwhelming the character.