Writer-Director-Producer Azita Damandan writes about their short film Echoes, now in contention for the 2026 AACTA Awards.
A Story of Exile, Memory, and Resistance
Lyrical, haunting, and deeply resonant, Echoes has positioned itself as a powerful contender for the 2026 AACTA Awards. Written and directed by acclaimed Iranian-Australian filmmaker Azita Damandan and starring Rina Mousavi in a stirring lead performance, the short film is already generating critical attention for its bold exploration of memory, censorship, and the transformative force of storytelling.
Set in Australia, Echoes follows Hannah (Rina Mousavi), a young Iranian writer navigating the creative and emotional weight of exile. While piecing together a poetic screenplay inspired by banned Iranian author Houshang Golshiri, Hannah’s imagined alter ego, Arash Golshiri, begins to take shape from the page, confronting her with questions of identity, imagination, and freedom.
When news of a new revolution erupts in Iran, Hannah interlaces the movement into her thesis. This choice becomes both a creative breakthrough and a personal risk, endangering her academic future while threatening the safety of loved ones back home. At its core, Echoes is a tribute to the resilience of the imagination and the power of storytelling to preserve memory, confront oppression, and inspire change.
Echoes stands as a reflection of countless artists and writers silenced by censorship, political exile, and fear. By weaving literature into the language of cinema, the film provides a rare and intimate lens into the emotional toll of exile, the legacy of banned voices, and the courage required to continue creating in the face of erasure. At a time when freedom of expression is under scrutiny across the globe, Echoes reaffirms the role of art in keeping history and humanity alive.
At the helm of Echoes is writer, director, and producer Azita Damandan, an Iranian-Australian filmmaker whose body of work spans more than thirty years across Iran and Australia. A self-taught director, she began her career penning short stories for Iranian newspapers before turning to film, where she quickly garnered national recognition for her award-winning short films such as Neighbour and Woman, Man, Child.
After immigrating to Australia in 2006, Damandan rebuilt her career from the ground up, founding Red Geranium Productions and continuing to craft internationally acclaimed works such as Lullaby, Silence, Untold, and Unseen. Her 2023 feature film Mourners earned multiple international awards and is now distributed globally through Amazon Prime and Sony Pictures.
With Echoes, Damandan returns to her poetic roots, blending literature and cinema into a cinematic meditation on identity, exile, and the fight for creative freedom.
At the heart of Echoes is Rina Mousavi, delivering a performance both fragile and fierce as Hannah, a writer grappling with her past and present. Mousavi, a Persian-Australian actress, is best known for her roles in the Sundance award-winning film Shayda and Stan’s Critical Incident. Trained in Perth and Sydney, she brings both range and physical discipline to her work.
Her performance in The Gunslinger (2021) earned her international recognition, screening at over 28 festivals and earning a Best Actress nomination at the Atlanta Comedy Film Festival. In Echoes, Mousavi channels her signature quiet intensity and emotional vulnerability, embodying a character caught between memory, creativity, and the weight of exile.
With its poetic storytelling, rich performances, and powerful themes, Echoes is more than a short film, it’s a cultural statement. As it garners momentum in the lead-up to the 2026 AACTA Awards, Echoes is poised to stand as a testament to the enduring strength of banned voices and the boundless resilience of art.