I am an independent filmmaker with a strong interest in psychoanalytic topics. I often find myself wondering whether the routines of daily life prevent us from introspection and self-reflection. When the coronavirus became a pandemic, I reflected on its impact, especially the mandatory isolation, which disrupted our daily rhythms. The lockdown brought significant changes for many, both positive and negative. It was an unpredictable time when people seemed to discover new aspects of themselves. In this short film, I aimed to show how this process of self-discovery unfolds.
For this piece, I returned to my studies of Jungian archetypes, exploring the psychological blueprints that shape the human experience. I examined various schemas, from the Warrior to the Persona, the Seeker, the Shadow, and the Inner Child, each a symbolic color painting our presence onto the canvas of life. Often, we become so captivated by the image we project that we mistake it for a unified self-forgetting that each layer carries ancient origins and inherited meaning.
I chose to distill these reflections into a series of recognizable societal characters, each constructed with specific emotional and psychological coordinates, guiding me slowly toward an undefined figure I was seeking to understand.
Emerging from a matrix of insecurity, a fragile sense of social identity, disillusionment rooted in the past, and an instinctive grasp for symbolic driftwood in the raging sea of social existence, this figure gradually took shape. And when the image finally came into focus, I saw a woman. With a quiet ache, I realized how strange and dissonant the world can feel for women- not just in my country, but globally- compared to the world that men often move through.
This is not to suggest that men live in ease or resolution, but to reflect on how deeply biological, psychosocial, and existential realities can differ between these worlds.
As I began to write, it became clear that containing all of this within the scope of a short film would be impossible. So I turned to symbolism, allowing metaphor and visual abstraction to speak. Drawing from my background in animation and conceptual art, I aimed to create a brief -yet piercing- encounter with one of the most profound processes in analytical psychology: the transition from fragmented schemas to unified archetypes, and the confrontation with the Shadow-those unseen hands that orchestrate our stage from the depths of the unconscious.
What emerged, to me, is less a film and more a poetic cinematic experience.
I invite you to experience it in this way.
- Ershad Rahbar Sobkhiz
Writer & Director