Sina Ahmadkhani was born in Tehran. He studied computer engineering at Sharif University of Technology while he collaborated on short films. He made his debut feature film in Mazandaran.
Ahmadkhani pursued a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, USA, where he continued to refine his cinematic craft. His film deals with exploring identity with surreality embedded in genre fiction.

I wanted to create a metaphorical language that projects the character’s introspection in the story. The idea of the night in the forest originated and expanded to explore the trauma of the marginalized character. He is someone who searches for meaning, refusing external values around him. To emphasize his isolation, I used high contrast between him and the others, where absurdism manifests his inability to connect to the world.

The character’s journey stemmed from the alienation and absurdity of life in Iran. I decided to create a surreal world to show better how lost one can find oneself in relation to the world. I think these subjects go beyond the context of my culture and my experience, and people worldwide could connect to them more personally.

Shooting in black and white felt right, as I wanted to show the sense of terror along with the beauty of nature; in the night scene, it helps to depict the literal darkness, and in day scenes, I wanted to see tree trunks as tall, black bars. It also would decontextualize the film from its era and make it more about the ideas it has.