Director’s Note :
This movie is about merging East and West, How Religious Freedom would effect these two societies while trying to live together without having any domination in terms of ideology.
Symbolically the Movie starts it’s journey from “Bosporus” (Istanbul – Turkey) which is considered to be the gateway of Asia and Europe. For centuries this intersection encountered with many cultures and religions.
The story begins with two sisters from a conservative family who have been in prosecution while dealing with the war in their home country, they were seeking refugee to pursue their fortune in a western country. By the time they’ve been grated refugee to live in a western country.
Although they are free to practice their own religion but the norms of the western society is conflicting what they used to believe.
In addition to that any kind of adoption would considered to be an act of compromising their originality, therefore any attempt to alter their situation would contradict their Ideology.
Religious Freedom is not the identity nor characteristic of certain people but it’s the ideology, mindsets, presets and norms of every individual determining to live with different cultures and beliefs.
Symbolically I’ve used HIJAB (wearing scarf) as the sign of those boundaries and adoptions, it might seems to be simple fact, but having or not having Hijab would determine an Individual to be part of the society (or workplace) or not to get involve.
In such matters when Ideology and Religious boundaries are being concerned, any kind of potential achievements conflicting those facts will be compromised intensively.
At the end while having anxiety and contradictions, she is revealing her dreams to us …
It was somewhere far away from all those anxieties and tensions, she ran away, struggled to be apart from the others.
Ultimately, she felt relief, literally being free and most importantly felt so close with her creator ! (symbolically the forest and a single tree resembles her feelings to standalone and take apart from all those boundaries and limitations).
Religious Freedom is when you find yourself connected to much higher and profound source of creation, it is when you take yourself away from egoistic manners and literally have the sense of freewill.
Ali Golroo