Teenage Refugee’s Five-Year Smartphone Film Captures the Struggle for Home

Soraya Akhlaghi was 16 years old when she began filming her story on a smartphone. Over a span of five years, she documented her life as a refugee fleeing Tehran. The resulting film, A Fox Under a Pink Moon, was assembled remotely by co-director Mehrdad Oskouei. It presents a stark view of her journey from an Istanbul asylum center back to her violent husband in Iran.

The film centers on Akhlaghi’s repeated attempts to cross borders. She describes these dangerous trips with people-smugglers as “games.” Most of these efforts fail when hostile law enforcement officers catch her in the wilderness. Her goal is to join her mother, who moved to Austria after Akhlaghi’s father died when she was a child.

Akhlaghi turns to art to process her trauma. She creates intense drawings and physical sculptures featuring four specific figures. A moon represents her longing, a fox offers advice, a clown acts as her inner strength, and craggy demons embody her fears. These images appear as animations throughout the film, contrasting with the harsh reality of her life.

The visual style of the movie reflects Akhlaghi’s own perspective. She frames chaotic scenes of migrants in overloaded trucks and sinking dinghies with purposeful clarity. The film also shows other young refugees using creativity to survive. One group of stranded children builds a shelter called a “mouse house” using twig walls and a roof of leaves.

The narrative follows a cycle of failure and return. Akhlaghi repeatedly finds herself back at the starting point after each escape attempt. She narrates these events in a calm monologue while watching the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on television. The film ends with her continuing to create art as a way to define her space in the world.