Prehistoric

“Prehistoric” emerged from my desire to explore grief, feminine embodiment, and the fragile boundary between performance and reality. Through surreal spaces and fragmented temporalities, the film follows a woman confronting emotional dependency and reclaiming her own voice.

Nina, a theater actress, has always needed her husband’s validation to feel secure in her work and identity. Now, with his sudden passing, time and space collapse around her; her living room is in the middle of the street, her bedroom stands by the shore, and the city streets morph into the lush forests of northern Iran. She is frozen in the moment of his death, unable to move forward. She still waits for him to return, to take her to the theater and reassure her one last time.

The drama revolves around Nina’s transformation from dependency to self-reliance. Through the narrative progression and the guidance of her close friend, Yasi, Nina finally accepts Sohrab’s death, completes her mourning process, and delivers a powerful theatrical performance that affirms her independence.

Beneath the personal grief, "Prehistoric" explores a deeper mythic narrative. It speaks to the story of Iranian women who, after centuries of invisibility and historical suppression, are reclaiming their voices. The primal, prehistoric figure that emerges in Nina’s movements symbolizes the wild and untamed feminine force that has been long repressed but is now breaking free.

As an independent filmmaker working in Iran, I created this film entirely with my own limited resources (without any institutional or governmental support), driven by a personal need to tell this story honestly and without compromise. All sets were built practically in real outdoor locations: a living room was built in the middle of a street, and a bedroom by the sea; both without walls. The production process was extremely challenging. The constructed sets (central to the film’s spatial language) were repeatedly interrupted and at times destroyed by local authorities, forcing us to rebuild them under pressure. This cycle of concealment, destruction, and reconstruction became embedded in the film itself, reflecting a lived reality in which artistic expression (particularly from a feminist perspective) must constantly negotiate visibility, risk, and survival. Despite these obstacles, we managed to complete the film through persistence, personal loans, and deep commitment to independent filmmaking. I worked with a highly professional team, including Pooyan Aghababaei, the DOP of Iran's 2025 Oscar nominated "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" and Pooyan Sholevar, an editor with credits at Cannes, Locarno, Sundance and Berlinale Talents.

I hope this short film offers audiences a visually and narratively unique experience; one that encourages self-reflection and discovering their own hidden strengths.