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Samaa

A caged bird discovers that true freedom emerges not through struggle, but through surrender to rhythm and movement.
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In Iranian culture, samaa is the spiritual practice of achieving awakening through rhythm and movement. In an imagined captivity, a caged bird flutters and thrashes in a desperate struggle to escape. Rendered in striking hand-painted animation and driven by a visceral drum score, the film traces the bird’s gradual surrender to the transcendent power of music. Filmmaker Ehsan Gharib invites us to consider whether freedom is a physical condition or a state of mind.

Animals Psychology and Psychiatry All subjects
  • direction
    Ehsan Gharib
  • writing
    Ehsan Gharib
  • editing
    Xi Feng
  • musician
    Ziya Tabassian
  • sound design
    Olivier Calvert
  • foley
    Lise Wedlock
  • foley recording
    Geoffrey Mitchell
  • re-recording
    Isabelle Lussier
  • online edit
    Luca di Gioacchino
  • technical direction
    Mathieu Tremblay
    Éloi Champagne
  • titles
    Mélanie Bouchard
    Mohsen Zarrabi
  • technical coordination
    Luc Binette
  • production coordination
    Dominique Forget
    Barry Ahmad
  • line production
    Laetitia Seguin
  • administration
    Victoria Angell
  • studio operations manager
    Camille Fillion
  • marketing
    Geneviève Bérard
  • publicist
    Nadine Viau
  • producer
    Maral Mohammadian
  • executive producer
    Robert McLaughlin
Samaa
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