Free and Beautiful is a poetic animated short that illustrates heartbreaking realities in three parts around the subject of violence against women. This piece is inspired by the experiences of living in a conservative country, such as Iran. It talks about the pressure of a suffocating government regime and a conservative society which forces women to suppress their real selves and live their lives according to society’s principles in order to get along and avoid trouble. Reasons such as: women need to get a legal permission from their husbands in order to travel abroad, they need to cover their hair out of home,
and women whose faces were burned with acid because of violence against them, formed this short film which focuses on these harsh experiences. Although, this piece is not able to ease the pain of these victims, the intention is reaching their voices to the world.

BY  Narges Haghighat (CA)


Narges Haghighat is an Iranian-Canadian animation filmmaker who graduated from the Film Animation program at Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Concordia University, Canada in 2017. Currently, she is studying for her MFA in Film Production at the same university. She also holds a bachelor's degree in computer software, and has more than a decade experience in acrylic and oil painting.