Sundance-Winning Iranian Filmmaker’s ‘Rainy Dreams’ Explores Children’s Nightmares Amid Displacement at Hong Kong Financing Forum
By Naman Ramachandran
Published on March 19, 2026.
Iranian filmmaker Alireza Ghasemi's "Rainy Dreams" has been selected for the Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum’s Animation in Focus section. The film combines live action and animation to explore the dreams of displaced children in Calais, France. It follows five exiled children in the northern French port city where many unaccompanied minors hope to cross to the U.K. The project is produced by Mojean Aria, Reza Baastani and Constance Le Scouarnec through Mystic Makers and won the Cannes Docs Award at When East Meets West in January. Despite not directly about Iran, the film is about how systems of violence and uncertainty enter the inner life of a child.
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