She Says She Loves You, Azizam
A short film written and directed by Melody Erfani
In development | LES Shakespeare Co.
Some things can’t be translated. They have to be heard.
About the Film
Leila, an Iranian-American engineer, has built an offline translation chip for the conversation she has always wanted: one with her grandmother in Tehran, without her father translating between them. But the technology that promises to bring them closer unsettles the role her father has held for thirty years.
As a familiar family story unfolds in her grandmother’s own words, Leila begins to discover how much she has never heard. Adapted from Melody Erfani’s play Bee زنبور, this intimate short explores language, inherited silence, and the ways family stories shape who we become.
Why I’m Making This Film
Growing up, calls to my grandmother in Iran were rare and expensive. My father would feed us the words to say—salam, joon, azizam—though we could not understand what came back. He was our connection to her, and I knew her largely through him.
This film is, in part, an homage to my late father. It also grows from my desire to understand the stories we inherit and how they change as they pass between generations. My grandmother died before video calls and real-time translation became ordinary. I still imagine the possibility of hearing her directly.
As an Iranian-American artist, I want to see more of our lives on screen, with room for tenderness, humor, and complicated family relationships. This will be my first film, building on years of writing, directing, and producing theatre. Film offers me new ways to explore these relationships through faces, silence, sound, and memory.
—Melody Erfani, Writer/Director
Contact
The film is currently in development. For collaboration, production, or community screening inquiries, please contact LES Shakespeare Co.