DEEPLY DARKLY DROLE
a short film by
MOHAMAD RAZAZIAN
LOGLINE
When a middle-aged grief addict living with his weird mother finds he can’t have tears all at once, he makes every effort to retain his crying potency.
Winner of
The Jury Prize for the best shortfilm of the 19th Festival International du Film Transsaharien de Zagora (October 2025)
The Award of Merit for the best shortfilm of the 22nd Accolade Global Film Competition (December 2025)
The Award of Merit for the best shortfilm of the 15th Best Shorts Competition (December 2025)
Officially Selected by
The 18th Jaipur International Film Festival (February 2026)
The 21st West Chester Film Festival (April 2026)
The 14th Gatffest International Film Festival (May 2026)
The 20th San Francisco Frozen Film Festival (July 2027)
SYNOPSIS
A middle-aged bachelor lives with his difficult, ex-ballet teacher mother. Consumed by grief, he suddenly finds himself sobbing but without tears. Determined to discover whether his inability to shed tears stems from an emotional lack or something deeper, he goes to disturbing extremes—even wondering if a deliberate tragedy might bring him to tears.
Written, Directed & Produced by : Mohamad Razazian
Director of Photography : Davood Malek-Hosseini
Editing : Pooyan Sholevar
Original Music : Amir Behzad
Sound Designer & Mixer : Alireza Alavian
Sound Recordist : Mostafa Akbari-Manjil
Set & Costume Designer : Sahar Shahamat
Still Photographer : Somayeh Jafari
Poster Designer : Sadegh Shamloo
Investors: Mohamad Razazian . Emad JelokhaniWith:
Ramin Sadighi . Ashraf Anooshi . Ali Khazeni . Ahmad Lashini
DIRECTOR’S REMARK
“Deeply Darkly Drole” is a comedy of black-hearted playfulness with restrained performances and touches of sardonic narrative. The story is about how an unconscious process, like grieving, may convert into a deliberate exercise.
The main character tries to break out into a deeper degree of self-recognition through the elements of dysfunction. On top of the reasons, what is critical is the status in which everything works as a failure, and identifying authenticity from imitation becomes inconsequential.
The protagonist's home is an essential setting. The proportion between characters and their circumstances is conceived through a fabricated world of realization, and even in the car scene, the outer world almost doesn’t exist.
The gentle theme of dynamics, a rarely moving camera, and a solitary state of set design and sound composition were to capture the slowly revealing expressions and escalate the value of the hidden satire of the situation. At the same time, the protagonist’s struggle is the cornerstone of the comedy of sadness.
MOHAMAD RAZAZIAN
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Shooting format : Digital 2K
Screening format : DCP, ProRes
Sound : 5.1 Stereo
Ratio : 2.35:1
Original version : Persian
Subtitled in : English
Running Time : 14min 32
Year : 2025
Mohamad Razazian was born in Tehran, Iran in 1984. Though he has a master's in Particle Physics, his passion for literature and cinema led him down other paths. He wrote several scripts and plays that were never permitted in Iran, and made music videos over the past years. As well as translating novels, notably by the Beat Generation, he wrote a novel in a seven-year period that was never published in Iran due to censorship concerns.Short Films:
2025: Deeply Darkly Drole
2019: Horse
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