‘The Scream of the Butterfly’ is an ode to the Women, Life, Freedom movement of Iran, told as a surrealistic political thriller. This film is akin to a tattered macabre tale passed down for generations.

When co-writer Ariya Akhavan was six months old, he and his family moved back to Iran. Once in Iran, government officials revoked his father’s passport in an attempt to bar him from leaving the country due to his activism during Iran’s first revolution of 1979. Later, he was summoned for questioning where he was blindfolded, interrogated, and he and his family’s lives were threatened. Through years of an arduous journey searching for anyone who could help, he was finally granted back his passport, which then allowed their family to flee the country and return to the US. Between Ariya’s complex relationship with his homeland and the new Women, Life, Freedom movement that revisits oppression and liberation in Iran, he dreamt of a poem full of motifs alongside a short story following a woman who resembles resilience— revolution. He brought both the short story and the poem to co-writer Anjini Taneja Azhar. Magnetized, she knew her and Ariya had to turn this story into a screenplay and thus… ‘The Scream of the Butterfly’ was born for the screen.

’The Scream of the Butterfly’ follows an Iranian woman Parvaneh (translated to ‘Butterfly’ in Farsi), amidst a brutal revolution, who is forced to cut out her own eye after it was shot by police. When totalitarian forces storm her hideaway, bag her head, and take her to an otherworldly prison, she discovers her dismembered eye is a method of sight. The blood from her eye soaks into the bag over her head, creating the mysterious form of a Rorschach butterfly. As she descends deeper into the belly of the beast, she must navigate the desolate prison with her eyeball and the help of a fellow prisoner, Narges (named in honor of Nobel-Prize winning activist Narges Mohammadi). Narges tells Parvaneh the story of the butterfly who carries screams and guides Parvaneh to transform into a symbol of resistance.

Envisioning an operatic gothic tale, ‘The Scream of the Butterfly is Anjini and Ariya’s visualization of a haunting chant for liberation. Parvaneh’s fight for not only herself, but every soul in the prison is a visual dance between the shrouds of darkness and shadow versus motifs of light largely motivated by true blacks in the chiaroscuro lighting of a Caravaggio painting and surrealism in the works of Francesco de Goya. The world-building of the story’s desolate landscape is inspired by the otherworldly architecture found in the paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński.

For Ariya, ‘The Scream of the Butterfly’ is an ode to his family, and the powerful women and men fighting for their owed freedom in Iran. For Anjini, the film is a ballad to the women of revolution: the invisible backbones of reclaimed freedom. It is a story for the ‘invisible’ to be invisible no more.

‘The Scream of the Butterfly’ is heading into production in London at the end of 2025 with Ariya Akhavan directing and Anjini Taneja Azhar producing.

Anjini Taneja Azhar is a director, screenwriter, and producer based in Los Angeles. She began her journey as an actor in 2011 in network TV & feature films such as JJ Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness, where she was permitted to shadow producer Jeffrey Chernov and observe Mr. Abrams’ direction. Surrounded by visionary directing and a labyrinth of light, Anjini immediately realized her childhood, filled with writing idle stories, had a greater purpose in the form of cinema. Since then, she has written, directed, and produced multiple award-winning shorts and commercial projects for various major companies.

Anjini’s work has been featured in Forbes Entertainment, Women Cinemakers, and Ladygunn Magazine. Her 2023 narrative short, ‘EVERYWHERE YOU GO,’ screened at the Oscar-qualifying LA Short’s Int’l Film Festival and Newport Beach Film Festival. Anjini won the Grand Jury Prize from Shore Scripts Film Fund for her narrative short, ‘Who Are You, Nanu?’ which was filmed in May 2024 along the Ganges River in India on 35mm film in partnership with British Airways. ‘Who Are You, Nanu’ is receiving its world premiere in-competition at the 41st annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. She is a WritersxWriters Finalist, Golden Script Finalist, and PAGE Awards Semi Finalist. Anjini has a deep reverence for character-driven, dramatic cinema that toys with elements of surrealism such as films by Michael Haneke, Ingmar Bergman, and Abbas Kiarostami

The Scream of the Butterfly marks her and Ariya Akhavan’s first collaboration.

Ariya Akhavan is an Iranian director, screenwriter, and photographer based in Los Angeles. When Iranian government officials threatened his family for their activism during Iran’s first revolution of 1979, Ariya and his family were forced to migrate back to the USA from Tehran. His complex relationship with the home he left behind has largely shaped him as a filmmaker and made him the artist he is today.

Ariya received his MA in Dramatic Arts from the world-renowned Central Saint Martins. Upon graduating, he was pulled into photography where he perfected art direction, storytelling within a frame, and painting with light. His work featuring actors such as Brenda Song, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and Avan Jogia has made the covers of various magazines. Alongside his music video directorial work, his 2023 narrative short ‘Echoes of Silence’ received an honorable mention from AGBO’s ‘No Sleep ‘Til Film Fest’ Competition. He is a Filmmatic Script Awards Finalist, Film Pipeline Top 5 Finalist, and Screencraft Semifinalist. Ariya is inspired by the surrealistic and genre bending work of artists like David Lynch, Guillermo Del Toro, and Robert Eggers.

The Scream of the Butterfly marks his and Anjini Azhar’s first collaboration.

 

Contact Anjini & Ariya:

Email

Anjini’s Instagram

Ariya’s Instagram

The Scream of the Butterfly‘s Instagram

 

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