TEHRAN – The documentary “A Fox Under a Pink Moon” co-directed by Mehrdad Oskouei and Soraya Akhlaghi won an award at the Matera International Film Festival (MATIFF), which was held from September 26 to October 4 in Matera, Italy.
MATIFF 2026 celebrated the talent and vision of Oskouei and Akhlaghi, who has also performed in the film, with the prestigious Bini-Pasolini Foundation Award , ISNA reported.
In its citation, the Alfredo Bini Foundation recognized their “authorial courage” and a production method that transforms the smartphone from a simple technical device to an instrument of expression, testimony, and resistance. This work embodies MATIFF’s mission: independent cinema capable of building bridges between worlds and cultures.
A joint production of Iran, France, the UK, Denmark, and the US, the 76-minute film had its world premiere at the 38th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in the Netherlands in November 2025 and won its first international award.
Since then, the documentary has participated in over 70 international film festivals and won some 38 awards.
The movie shows 16-year-old Soraya, who is already creating stunning drawings and sculptures that are as beautiful as they are dark. This strong-willed Afghan sculptor and illustrator has been trying for five years to leave Iran and join her mother in Austria.
Mehrdad Oskouei directed the film entirely remotely, with Soraya filming all the footage herself over five years using her phone.
This material is interspersed with shots of her drawings and surreal animations. Making art is no idle pastime for Soraya: she puts all her worries, joys, and fears into her drawings and the sculptures she makes from soaked egg cartons or clay that she finds along her routes. Many of her drawings feature recurring figures: a loyal fox who is her traveling companion, a pink moon that always watches over her, and a clown who never laughs—a character Soraya identifies with.
According to Oskouei, a renowned Iranian documentary filmmaker, in the past 19 years, working with the Center for Rehabilitation, he has made four films about young delinquents and murderers. “In my first film, ‘It’s Always Late for Freedom,’ I felt that my characters wanted a larger part in forming the narration of the film, and this thought stayed with me until my last film, ‘Sunless Shadows,’ where I succeeded in obtaining this result in parts of the film,” he said.
“Later, when I looked through the footage in the editing room, I was amazed by the atmosphere I felt through this material. When I decided to make this happen in my newest film, I did away with my entire filming crew on set,” he added.
“After Soraya’s first trip to Turkey, when the filming continued upon her return to Tehran, she increased her knowledge of filmmaking by enrolling in classes on how to use a cell phone for making films. I spoke to her each night about the scenes she had taken and planned to take, and in this way, we coordinated a joint directorship,” Oskouei noted.
According to Akhlaghi, when she first turned the camera towards herself, she was not ready. “Life in those days was full of fear, suppressed anger, and a search for a way to continue living and surviving. The very moment I filmed my first images, it was as if a piece of reality awoke within me, a reality I had tried to hide for years,” she said.
“From 2018 until today, this film was not just a filmmaking project for me; it was a journey not only of watching myself but of knowing and building myself. At first, the camera was like a cold witness to me, but gradually it became a friend. A friend I truly needed to confide in,” she added.
“When I first met Mehrdad Oskouei (who has become ‘Uncle Mehrdad’ to me), something broke inside me. He said honestly, ‘Who you are right now is not your real self.’ Then he gave me paper and colored pencils and asked me to draw. So, I drew clowns; only clowns. Clowns that never laughed. Those clowns were my inner pains. They were my unseen wounds,” she stated.
“From that point, I began to draw my pains, one by one. It was as if Uncle Mehrdad knew that by drawing those pictures, I would gradually become calm and free. Today, I want to say that working with Mehrdad Oskouei, the professional documentary film director, was like a school of life for me. I learned from him that what an artist sees is not just about beauty, but beyond that, it is about truth,” she emphasized.
“Making a film alongside Uncle Mehrdad brought back trust for me; trust in others, and more importantly, trust in myself. He wasn’t just a filmmaker. Throughout this journey, he was like a friend, a therapist, and a trustworthy person by my side at a time when I trusted no one. For him, the film wasn’t important; saving my life was important. And I felt this with my entire being,” Akhlaghi asserted.
“Today, looking back on this seven-year journey, I understand he didn’t just teach me how to film myself; he taught me how to survive and how to live. And that is the miracle of cinema and documentary film. And now, after all these years, I stand here. Not as the teenage girl who narrowly escaped death many times, but as a woman who found belief in herself and rebuilt herself from scratch,” she said.
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