Shakh(Risen)

Director’s Statement

This film explores the psychological and symbolic aftermath of domestic violence through the story of Parisa — a woman accused of killing her abusive husband under circumstances that defy logic. At its core, the film is not a crime story, but a meditation on repression, rage, and the thin line between madness and awakening.

The “cow” in the film is not simply an element of mystery; it is a metaphor. In many cultural and mythological traditions, horned creatures represent power, sacrifice, fertility, and suppressed instinct. For me, the cow embodies Parisa’s buried force — her silenced anger, her survival instinct, and the violence she was forced to endure. Whether the cow exists physically is less important than what it represents psychologically. It becomes the manifestation of a truth that society refuses to acknowledge.

Parisa is the family’s provider, yet she is trapped in a cycle of abuse. When her silence breaks, it is immediately reframed as instability. The psychiatric institution becomes a metaphor for how systems contain and neutralize women who disrupt patriarchal order. The more Parisa insists on her version of reality, the more she is pathologized. But what if what we call delusion is actually a refusal to continue living inside a lie?

As other women begin to “see” the cow, the film shifts from individual trauma to collective awakening. Shared hallucination becomes shared recognition. The presence that moves through the asylum suggests that suppressed rage does not disappear — it transforms.