” I wonder what illegal immigrants think about when they are drowning in the sea?”
At only 16, Soraya is already creating striking drawings and sculptures, as beautiful as they are dark. This determined Afghan sculptor and illustrator has been trying for five years to leave Iran to join her mother in Austria.
This subtly textured self-portrait intertwines poignant scenes of her escape attempts with Afghan political news and videos of her singing and dancing, or showing her bruises.
With A fox under a pink moon, Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya offer an intimate reflection, almost a self-portrait, on uprooting, the sense of belonging, and the human cost of borders.
Remote Co-direction
It’s rare, but it happens. The main director of A fox under a pink moon, Mehrdad Oskouei, was very far from the “set.” It was the young Soraya who, with her Samsung phone, filmed the entire movie, sometimes risking her life.
Soraya
The young artist films intimate moments of her life, creative sessions, and obviously sequences of flight and violence. By alternating between these scenes, she also brings varied emotions to the viewer. Thus, the film alternates between moments of strange beauty and moments of harsh violence. It is not the explosions or the threats that leave the strongest impression. It is the domestic violence captured live that leaves an indelible mark on the spectator.
The young woman has incredible nerve to film what is happening around her, but also immeasurable courage. By carrying her phone everywhere with her and keeping her camera open regardless of the situation, she succeeds in making us understand what it is like to flee a country illegally and to be sent back to point A over and over again.
Surviving Through Art
This film opens a window onto the power of art and hope in these difficult times.
Soraya and her fox
Soraya is married to a violent man and is determined to forge her own future. In very difficult circumstances, creating is not a simple hobby, but a way to survive and exist. In her works, she breathes all her anxieties, joys, and fears into her drawings and the sculptures she fashions from egg cartons soaked in water or clay found on her escape routes. Many of her drawings feature recurring figures: a faithful fox that accompanies her on her travels (and which, thanks to animation overlays, appears by her side a few times), a pink moon that always watches over her, and a scary clown—a character Soraya identifies with.
On the surface, it is an ordinary story of emigration, but at its heart, we enter the universe of an artist. A must-see documentary.
A fox under a pink moon is presented at Hot Docs on April 30 and May 1, 2026.
