Nov 6, 2023

2024 Academy Awards Short Film Candidates: - House of Mind - Director Sarah Saidan.

Welcome to the spotlight series of Cartoon Brew, which focuses on the 2024 Academy Award-nominated animated shorts. There are several ways in which a movie can qualify. Use these profiles to focus on Oscar-qualified and award-winning films at Oscar-qualified festivals.

Today's short story is the heartland of the Iranian・born French-based director Sarah Saidan. The film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short at the New York International Children's Film Festival.

The House of Hearts turns on Omid, an Iranian immigrant who lives with his wife and daughter in France.Omid lives with his wife and daughter, after learning that his wife and daughter have no heart in his chest, Omid returns to his beloved home country in search of missing organs.

Cartoon Brew: The film touches on very serious themes, such as xenophobia, homesickness and violent crime, but always has a sense of humor and whimsy. Was it always your intention to keep the tone of the movie bright-

Sarah Saidan: Becoming an immigrant, especially in the first year, is a bittersweet experience. Leaving your land and roots behind is already heartbreaking. Besides, because of language barriers and cultural differences, we can feel completely lost. But from my own personal experience, while I learned the language and became familiar with French culture, I also lived many interesting moments. I've met so many incredible people and felt lucky to be able to work towards the life I've always wanted. I didn't want to tell a sad story; I wanted it to reflect all these dimensions trying to make roots in a new country in a poetic, funny way.

What was it that forced me to connect with you and direct a film about this story or concept-

One day, a few years after I moved to France, someone asked me: "When do you go home -" I did not know what time it was, so I looked at my watch. In that case, while I was staring at my watch, I realized what he meant, "When are you going back to your country, Iran-" That question might have been perceived as thoughtless, but I learned to ignore such behavior after all these years. Still, that question stayed with me for another reason: I remembered that I didn't even know where the "house" was.

I decided to play with the words "The house is where the heart is" and wrote a story around this concept."

What did you learn through the experience of making this film, production-wise, filmmaking-wise, creative, or about the subject-

I worked with good producers and I worked with people who were always there, trusted me and gave me confidence.

But apart from that, making this film was kind of a treat as I was trying to answer questions. The idea of home has been bothering me for years, and I think I finally found peace after making this film. My daughter was born at the stage of development of the film, and my life was not the same after meeting her. The sense of belonging was no longer missing from my life; this was something I didn't expect.

Can you explain how you developed a visual approach to cinema - why did you settle for this style/technique-

I mainly deal with 2d, hand-drawn animation. I love hand-drawn animations. Even when we used the software, it was still hand drawn. I created the design and character by myself and then helped to create all the backgrounds. The film needed a detailed environment to depict the presented two countries. We had a different color palette and so much detail. Also, the sequence of dreams, reflecting the character's nostalgia for his homeland, had to be perfect, vivid and a little exaggerated. Things about his fear needed to be detailed and dark, expressing the fear he felt so deeply. To do so, it was necessary to work with a skilled background designer.Fortunately, I had the opportunity to collaborate.