Payvand Eghtesadi was born in 1996 in Tehran. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Cinema with a focus on Editing from the University of Tehran and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Dramatic Literature at Tarbiat Modares University. She has experience editing over 30 short films and one feature-length film. Dissociation is her first film as a writer and director. Since 2018, she has also been teaching filmmaking to teenagers.

Summary of the film Dissociation: Pouya, an 8-year-old boy, is doing his homework with his aunt. Shortly after, Pouya hides in the house. When his aunt finds him under the bed, she realizes that Pouya is struggling recalling the sound of his lost mother’s voice.

RedCut: How did you start your career in cinema? Considering that working conditions in Iranian cinema are quite complex for women, why did you choose cinema as the medium to express your individual and collective creativity?

Payvand Eghtesadi: I have been deeply interested in cinema since childhood, and this passion has always been supported by my family. We watched a lot of films, and gradually, I developed a dream to one day make films out of my own stories. This dream has stayed alive within me, and despite the challenges, I didn’t lose my heart. I studied Cinema, focusing on Editing, and later, Dramatic Literature. Over the past few years, I have been mostly working on editing short films. Editing has given me the opportunity to explore and understand cinematic narratives more precisely, which greatly helped in the process of making my first short film.

RedCut: The film’s story involves a young boy who is supposed to study with an adult at home, but instead, he hides under the bed, where a playful tension arises between imagination and reality. Could you elaborate on this concept?

Payvand Eghtesadi: The boy in the film wants to remember something he has forgotten. By hiding under the bed, he escapes reality and takes refuge in his world of imagination. The space under the bed generally evokes a sense of fear and the unknown for children, but for the boy in the film, it becomes a secluded place for daydreaming. By confronting his fears, he embarks on a path toward maturity. Additionally, by hiding in this space, he tries to communicate his pain to those around him.

RedCut: Considering that, besides cinema, you also work with children, how does this experience shape the space for writing your stories and screenplays?

Payvand Eghtesadi

Payvand Eghtesadi: Working with children is often very educational for me. I am always inspired by their trust in their instincts and emotions. They work without preconceived notions or fear, and observing their creativity, encourages me to be bolder and more free. During rehearsals, there were times when my child actor would object to certain dialogues he didn’t like, and I would trust his feelings and, with his help, change the lines. After all, he knew better than anyone how a nine-year-old boy would behave. For the world of children to feel real within the context of such stories, children must be authors in their own right, and I strongly believe in collaborating with them.

RedCut: The boy in your film is a child dissatisfied and protesting against his environment and situation. Do you see him as a symbol of awareness for the next generation?

Payvand Eghtesadi: More than awareness, he represents the resilience and determination of this generation. The process of “dissociation ,” from which the film takes its name, happens when the brain consciously erases painful memories of loss to preserve the individual’s mental health and survival. The boy in the film suffers from this disruption in his memories, and he doesn’t understand why. But he refuses to accept this forced erasure, and as a result, he fights with himself—or, more precisely, with his brain—while using external factors to prevent the deletion of his memories. His anger will only subside once his aunt helps him restore his fragmented memories of his mother, and neither her threats nor her rewards matter to him. This is my image of the next generation—a generation determined to achieve its goals. He wants to remember his mother’s voice, and he fights for this.

RedCut: The cinematography and scene composition in your short film feature cohesive and symmetrical framing. Did the idea for the visuals form simultaneously with the writing, or did you think about the imagery after finishing the script?

Payvand Eghtesadi: I imagined the scenes as I was writing. It was very important to me to portray, with simplicity, the fantasy world of a child who loves cartoons and animation, and I think the film’s world-building somewhat succeeded in conveying this feeling to the audience. Additionally, the film’s color palette was crucial for me from the early stages of writing the screenplay. That’s why I chose the animated film Monsters, Inc. and tried to align the film’s color palette with that animation.

RedCut: What challenges do young women face when trying to develop their ideas and visions in the male-dominated and patriarchal world of Iranian cinema?

Payvand Eghtesadi: I think female filmmakers in our country, aside from the societal challenges they face, are constantly striving to establish their independent and unique identities as filmmakers. However, as I mentioned, the new generation resists these frameworks, and I see this resistance clearly in my filmmaking students. I’m confident that these gendered perspectives will soon undergo changes, and we will soon witness a fiercely independent and bold generation of female filmmakers.

RedCut: Tell us about your new project. Considering that children’s cinema is highly significant in Iran, will you continue working with children in cinema?

Payvand Eghtesadi: Currently, I’m working on a documentary that depicts the daily life and challenges of a boy with Down syndrome. After finishing this documentary, I plan to make a short narrative film in which the main characters are several little girls. The stories in my mind have always been intertwined with children, and as long as the structure of my mental world doesn’t change, I intend to continue working with children.