When a marriage is troubled and parents split up, children always suffer. Sometimes such separations are necessary, but when we look at it from a child’s perspective, we are reminded how important it is to prioritize marital harmony and family unity.
This is the theme of a very short award-winning Iranian film by Mohammed Reza Kheradmandan, who has written and directed other short films related to family life. Kheradmandan shared with Aleteia why he made he made his new film called Separation:
What inspired you to make this animation?
I was sitting in family court years ago … A man and a woman came for separation and were sitting on a bench waiting for their turn. A child was sitting between them on the bench and her feet did not reach the ground. The little girl, who was nervous about the situation, was shaking her leg in the air. Every time her shoes hit her parents, they would tell her off and tell her not to move her feet. It was this state of suspense and the anxiety and the fact that her feet did not reach the ground which gave rise to the idea for this film.
Why did you depict your film from the perspective of a child?
Because of their vulnerability. The fact that a child does not have the ability to digest and understand the problem puts him in a dramatic and dangerous situation.
What message did you want to get across?
Naturally, in any separation, the children suffer the most. The animation says that stress and anxiety and the feeling of loneliness and wavering is the most difficult sensation that a child experiences when parents separate.
And today we celebrate...