Alireza Ghasemi‘s “Rainy Dreams” combines live action and animation to explore the dreams of displaced children waiting in limbo in Calais, France, transforming their nocturnal visions into animated sequences including a candle sealed in a crate, a circus of judgment and a boy without a shadow.
The France-Iran co-production, which won the Cannes Docs Award at When East Meets West in January, has been selected for the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum’s Animation in Focus section. Produced by Mojean Aria, Reza Baastani and Constance Le Scouarnec through Mystic Makers, the film follows five exiled children in the northern French port city where many unaccompanied minors wait hoping to cross to the U.K. A filmmaker enters their world as an animated dog aboard a live-action ferry, while the children’s visions transform into animated sequences featuring boots that cry, a strange volcano and a flying tank.
The project marks Ghasemi’s second feature following “In the Land of Brothers,” which premiered at Sundance in 2024 and won the Director Award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. The Iranian filmmaker, now based in Paris, is an alumnus of the Cannes Residency and Berlinale Talents.
Ghasemi explained his attraction to the subject matter. “When I moved from Iran to France a few years ago, one of the first things I noticed was that the quality of my dreams changed in a strange and immediate way. My dreams became heavier, more fragmented and more anxious, as if the experience of change had entered the unconscious before I had fully understood it in waking life,” he said.
The director added: “Later, when I spent time in Calais, I met unaccompanied children and began listening to their dreams. I noticed how often sleep carried traces of fear, instability and uncertainty. At its core, the film is about how systems of violence and uncertainty enter the inner life. When a child lives under constant instability, that condition does not end when they fall asleep; it mutates, repeats and reappears in other forms.”
Asked about parallels with the ongoing conflict in Iran, Ghasemi noted: “‘Rainy Dreams’ is not directly about Iran, but the film inevitably resonates with the current war and its human consequences. It is about children living under prolonged uncertainty, fear, displacement and systems of violence that continue shaping the mind even during sleep.”
He added: “These days I often think about children who fall asleep while the sound of war planes and distant explosions fills the night around them. As an Iranian filmmaker, I cannot separate my gaze from the reality of what is happening now in Iran.”
Producer Mojean Aria highlighted the project’s humanizing approach. “When I first read ‘Rainy Dreams,’ I knew I had to back this project. We’re living in a moment where it often feels like dehumanization is at an all-time high. Children who are casualties of war — killed, injured or displaced — have too often been reduced to statistics that circulate through social media stories for 24 hours before disappearing.”
Aria added: ”’Rainy Dreams’ honors these children in a way we rarely see. What could be more humanizing than being invited into someone’s dreams?”
Producer Constance Le Scouarnec outlined the project’s financing strategy. “Following the Cannes Docs Award received at When East Meets West in January 2026, the project has started to attract strong international attention. The financing structure is currently being developed across France, Iran and the U.S.”
The multilingual production will be filmed in English, French, Dinka, Kurdish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Persian and Dari Persian. The project is seeking funds, co-producers, sales agents and pre-sales at HAF.
Leave a Reply