Yo Yo

In a desert at the southernmost point of Iran, a young man’s mind is taken over by whispers only he can hear, while his friend tries to pull him out of a darkness that has no outside.

A film whose antagonist is inaudible. Photographing it meant working against the impulse to illustrate — no visual stand-in for the voices, no effect standing where the sound should be. What the stills carry instead is the desert: the scale of a landscape that offers nowhere to hide, and two figures inside it, one of whom is no longer entirely there.

I also designed the film’s identity, so the still image and the way the film presents itself came out of the same decisions.

Locarno Film Festival — Nominee, Best Short Film