“I didn’t want to people to just enjoy the visuals. I wanted them to be more connected to the story” – Négar Motevalymeidanshah (LESS THAN 5 GRAMS OF SAFFRON)

LESS THAN 5 GRAMS OF SAFFRON is a beautifully animated 360 film that explores the immigrant experience and the memories that people carry with them – of the journey and of home. The piece, told through the eyes of a young woman whose story is unlocked by the smell of cooking with saffron, won a Special Jury Prize at Venice Immersive 2025.

We spoke with director Négar Motevalymeidanshah about the piece and her own journey in making it.

Becoming an artist between Iran and Europe

N.M. – I consider myself an illustrator. I started with art and painting, then continued onto animation, and then, because it was really hard to find a team and funding, I started to work in advertising, to earn money.

In 2021, I just decided to just change my life by going to Europe for a joint Masters programme – Erasmus Mundus, first in Belgium, then Finland. I was in Aalto University, and gave us all the tools for free to work with and explore. One of my professors gave me the VR headset, and even though I didn’t know how it worked before, I immediately thought that I have to use this opportunity. When I put it on my head, I thought, “Oh my god, I’m here. I’m somewhere else.” I made me feel like I’m present in that place. So I started to exploring the software, and started to work in Quill. VR gave me the feeling that you are present. You can explore everything, or you can be like an audience in in theater. It called me to make this animation.

N.M. – I went to Europe because of the situation that was happening in Iran. Everyone was wanting to leave and I thought I had to do it to. I thought if you go outside of Iran, it will be a red carpet for you. Everything will be perfect, without hijab, without sanctions, etc… In the beginning, I thought I would have freedom, and I’ll be enjoying life. But as I started my new journey, instead of feeling freedom, I just felt anxiety. It wasn’t because of the society or Belgium or the people. The problem was that I couldn’t adjust myself in a new society.

I had panic attacks. For days, I couldn’t get out of bed, but I also couldn’t sleep. I wanted to do my studying, but I just had so much anxiety. I wanted to go back to Iran. I was trying to figure out how to cure myself. I had two Georgian roommates who helped me get better, to change my decorations, help me make a home for myself. I was still struggling, but then I started to make food for myself, and that helped. It felt good, it reminded me of home. The saffron [which is an important ingredient in Iranian food] gave me calmness, but at the same time anxiety, because I couldn’t go back to Iran. My friend David, who is from Lebanon, helped me organize my thoughts: “Saffron is the twist of things that are happening in your life. You have immigration anxiety.”

LESS THAN 5 GRAMS OF SAFFRON, a story between countries

When I started university, I wanted to have a project for myself. I started a script in Iran, but wasn’t sure about making it in Europe. [After talking to David], everything became easier for me to focus. I started to make the protagonist in my animation, and then I researched a lot, interviewing 15 or 16 people who were from Afghanistan and Iran, who immigrated to a new society. The thing that really struck me is that people feel safe and it seems that they’re happy, but they’re not happy inside, in their heart.

The story was built out of your feelings of anxiety about being in this place, but it’s not specifically your story. The work has a more visceral reference of violence. Is it another person’s story, or a composite of the experiences of the other people you talked to, or an imaginary experience?

N.M. – When I started doing LESS THAN 5 GRAMS OF SAFFRON, I explored artists who were working on immigration topics, and it’s when I started to write everything. I had the saffron as an element and it was a red color, and I wanted to have this kind of idea, so I made it up the story, the protagonist name, the plot, everything was prepared but I didn’t have an ending. There was a kind of miracle moment – I talked with an immigrant girl from Afghanistan, and it was so weird because she had a similar name to my protagonist, was the same age when she immigrated. Her story was worse, because she didn’t want to get married with her cousin, so they left the country by a boat. It helped me to feel that okay, this way in my piece is good.

Going for an animated VR film

When did you decide to do it in 3D/VR?

N.M. – At first, it was 2D. I wanted everything to be high quality, but I didn’t have a lot of money. I started thinking how I can make something good. And I like challenges, I like to learn something new. A classmate that knew me well told me, “Negar, 2D is safe for you. Go for VR.”

In Quill, you can make everything so nice. It’s like a Photoshop, but in 3D, so it makes it immersive. It is also easier to just show everything. If I wanted to make this animation in 2D version, I think it would take a lot of time, but in VR, you can make it like shorter because you are more present in the experience.

You’re the animator for the piece. The visuals are beautiful. You can see where you come from, that you know how to be artistic without using the tools of VR, and then can use those tools to amplify the artistic vision of the piece. The visuals are very minimal, but they have a lot of emotion to them, and they evoke something for the viewer.

When you’re working in Quill, everything looks like a vector, you everything is so flat and solid, so you have to make everything. For me light and shadow are like a character, I love to have them in my illustrations. I didn’t want this to be minimal in that sense.

But I also chose to make my scenes a bit minimal because I wanted the audience to just focus on the thing that I wanted to and not to look around. Because when people look around a lot, instead of understanding their story, they are just getting more information about the visuals. Maybe that way is nicer for them, more enjoyable. But I didn’t want to people to just enjoy the visuals. I wanted them to be more connected to the story of LESS THAN 5 GRAMS OF SAFFRON.

That’s another reason I wanted to use VR.  “First world” countries can have VR equipment and watch it. And I wanted to them to watch these feelings. [In many European countries], it can be bothering to see immigrants. I now have residency in Austria. I know that the shape of the countries are changing, but we have to understand that these people like us, they didn’t have the best story. They are coming with that trauma to your country. I wanted to make people to sit and watch, and understand them better.

Finding an audience

Do you feel the piece conveys the feeling that you wanted, that viewers are understanding this difficult liminal place?

N.M. – I think I made something so that people can understand some part of the feeling. It is really nice to see people in Europe feeling emotional about it. In VAF (ANIDOX:XR, Denmark), I watched a woman about 60 – I was wondering how she would feel watching it. Afterwards, she didn’t want to stand up, and for me it was amazing that she understood what I wanted to show.

My producer (Gwenaëlle Clauwaert, Ten2Ten Films in France), my professor, my friends – many people told me you have to have a good ending, but there is no happy ending in this story. I didn’t find a solution for myself. I could just ignore it somehow, like with cooking, but there is no relief of anxiety.

You’ve also put a lot of thought into the sound and rich sound design.

N.M. – For the music, there are two different styles, because I wanted to show that the girl is not adjusted in the new society. There’s western music when she’s outside of the house and going to the shop, but most of it is more like Iranian music, because I wanted to show that her inner feeling. She’s still Iranian, you know? I asked one of my friends, Kian Portorab, and after telling him what I wanted, he did a great job – he only had to send one revision for what you are hearing.

For the sound design, I asked Hossein Ghorchian, who is famous in Iran. He put in the sound, but because everything was in one “line”, I used it as a reference [to build the layered sound]. I had funding from France, so we made a new sound design from that reference with BLANKTONE in Lyon (Laurent Vang).

Will you continue making things in VR?

N.M. – When I start writing something new, the hardest part of the project is figuring the visuals, about the tools you need to make it in the best way. The script I’m writing now, it can be on VR. But if I make it in VR, I will also have a version in 2D, because there are not that many people who have the tools to watch on VR. For example, I cannot show my mother and father and friends, because Meta is blocked in Iran.