Refugee teen Soraya Akhlaghi turns five years of asylum chaos into a painted film
A new documentary features self-portraits and animations created by the 16-year-old Iranian refugee while she navigated failed border crossings in Turkey and returned to a violent marriage in Tehran.
By Charlotte Dubois ·
Soraya Akhlaghi, a 16-year-old Iranian refugee, filmed a striking self-portrait using a smartphone over a five-year period. The resulting documentary was assembled remotely by co-director Mehrdad Oskouei. The project captures the specific struggles of a young woman fleeing a life working as a maid in Tehran.
The film follows Akhlaghi’s attempts to reach Austria to join her mother, who emigrated after Akhlaghi’s father died when she was a child. Her journey begins at an asylum center in Istanbul. She refers to border-crossing expeditions with smugglers as games, though most end in failure in the wilderness at the hands of hostile law enforcement.
After failing to cross into Europe, Akhlaghi returns to the Iranian capital and lives with a violent husband. Of Afghan heritage, she watches the Taliban takeover on television, identifying with the desperate crowds trying to board US planes. She prepares for another escape attempt, enduring beatings from her partner and harassment from Turkish border police. She narrates these events to the camera in a numbed monologue.
Akhlaghi processes her despair through intense drawings that feature a recurring cast of four figures. She depicts a moon to which she expresses longing, a fox that offers advice, a clown avatar representing her inner strength, and craggy demons symbolizing her fears. She also molds her fears into physical sculptures. These creations appear in the film as vaporous animations that contrast with her harsh reality.
The documentary highlights the resilience of other young artists in similar situations. One scene shows a group of refugee children stranded in a forest. They build a small structure with twig walls and a leaf roof, which they call a mouse house. Akhlaghi frames chaotic migrant scenes, including overloaded trucks and sinking dinghies, with purposeful clarity behind the camera.
The finished film serves as a visual record of Akhlaghi’s Sisyphean existence, showing her continually returning to the starting line. Her innate visual sense drives the cinematography, capturing the specific textures of her life in transit. The project presents art as a primary method for defining personal boundaries while in exile.
Most of the footage was shot by Akhlaghi herself during her time at the Istanbul asylum center and during her subsequent return to Iran. The co-director edited the material remotely, preserving the raw perspective of the creator. The film combines live-action footage of border crossings with animated sequences derived from her drawings.
