SÂNZIANA

Sânziana
About

Sânziana is a 12:21 min female-led psychological suspense film with Romanian mythology influences. It tells the story of Ileana, who chased by nightmares at night and a stalker by day, journeys through the realm of the dreaming and the everyday streets of life finding the allies to guide her back to self in order to face the demons of her past and confront the villains in her present.

It explores the themes of betrayal, female archetypal mentoring, sexual-assault, childhood trauma, courage and self-transformation.

The short film Sânziana initiate an intimate view on themes such as, sexual assault on children - girls and, by extension, on women. It begins by showing how childhood trauma reverberates and affects one's daily life in adulthood and what type of relationships summons in a woman's life.

It invites discussions on the abuse, invasiveness and dangers women face in world society, but also the steps it can be taken to overcome those issues at a personal level.

Sanziana_SOCIAL MEDIA_4x5_edited_edited.

Poster @byRoyalston

The protagonist, Ileana, trudges wearily from her nightmares into reality and back, the parallels influencing each other and propelling the journey forward on a spiralling trilogy of struggles, avoidance and ending with facing the villains, both in her dreams and her reality.

Animation by Eugenia Cynthiaputri

Sânziana is told through a dual narrative facet: reality and dream; past and present; life footage and animation.

Sânziana is the name of a principal goddess in Romanian folklore who symbolises the aid, the mentor, the guide in all stories of a hero's journey.

Here, in particular, it also reveals the writer-director's style of storytelling, the fascination with mythology, folklore and symbolism, her ethnicity and gender.