ASHES
A proof-of-concept short film
Austin Screenwriting Competition
Semifinalist
A Project of the
American Film Institute DWW+
2025
Slamdance Screenwriting Competition
Winner
2024
STORY
An Iranian-American woman returns home to bury her mother and dig up an old relationship during a feminist revolution.
WORLD
Set during the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022, Ashes unfolds in Tehran at a moment when public life is charged with fear and more possibility than ever before. While protests and repression simmer just on the edge of the frame, the story is told through intimate, contained spaces where tension builds slowly.
Elly’s sleek, modern house, with its filtered pool, curated surfaces, and sense of control, becomes a world within a world. But beneath the music and flashing lights of her party, rebellion hums. Mona, adrift among strangers, feels alien in her mother’s country and in her own skin, the political climate pressing in even as no one speaks of it directly.
The revolution is there in silences, in sidelong glances, in the constant awareness of being watched, by neighbors, by friends and by the state. The climax shifts into the streets, where chaos and catharsis merge as Mona scatters her mother’s ashes into the fires of protest, letting private grief collide with collective rage and hope.
IN THE NEWS
Our Team (we're growing)
AFI DWW+ educates traditionally underrepresented filmmakers through the production cycle of
a short film, providing hands-on instruction led by industry experts.
Since the program’s inception in 1974, DWW+ has trained over 350 filmmakers who give voice to historically underrepresented perspectives. DWW+ is proud of its legacy as one of the first gender impact programs in the cinematic arts, as well as one of the longest-running and preeminent film and television workshops nationwide.
We'd love your help spreading ASHES!
We are raising a budget of $50,000 through our network and AFI’s fiscal sponsorship program. Your contributions are eligible for tax-deduction.
The Early Believer
<$250
We'll send you a heartfelt thank you note. Cause really, thank you!
The Special Supporter
$2,500 - $4,900
What comes before + Special thanks credit & updates on feature development
The Witness
$250 - $950
Early Believer perks + Your name on the campaign website
Associate Producer
$5,000 - $9,900
What comes before + Associate Producer credit and invitation to early private screening (if local)
The Insider
$1,000 - $2,400
What comes before + insider scoop on production and festivals
Executive Producer
$10,000+
What comes before + Executive Producer credit and invitation to set (if local)
Director Statement
I grew up in Iran, in a home marked by silence. My father was a political prisoner for ten years. After his release, we never talked about what had happened to him, not in a real sense. Like many Iranian families, we survived by swallowing what couldn’t be said and by masking it with humor. The thrill, the silence, the dark humor, they all became part of me.
I wasn’t supposed to become a filmmaker. I was jailed at 17 for political activity, expelled from university for my family’s religion, and denied the right to higher education. I couldn’t study mathematics, let alone cinema. But I knew I wanted to make films, and more than that, I needed to tell the stories I was forced to keep inside. So I left. I came to the U.S., found community, got an MFA in film, taught for years, and slowly built a filmmaking life for myself, piece by piece, job by job. I’ve never had a straight path, but I’ve always had a voice. And I’ve learned to protect it.
Ashes is the most personal story I’ve told. It’s not autobiographical, but it’s rooted in what I’ve lived: the pain of exile, the weight of secrets, the absurdity and rage that come from grief that was never allowed to speak. It’s about a woman who doesn’t want to feel anything, who’s been alienated from her history, her country, her mother, and is forced to return to all three. In telling Ashes, I’m looking at how a revolution ripples across generations, how it reaches into the lives of those who think they’ve left it behind. I’m also interested in how women carry those silences. And how they arrive to the point of breaking and then carry on.
