A tragedy inside another tragedy.
The core story comes from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh: Rostam and Sohrab meet as warriors before either understands that they are father and son.
For this film I wanted a second emotional layer. Ferdowsi is not only the author outside the story; he becomes the frame around it. His relationship with his own son, Mehrak, turns the epic into something personal: a film about fathers, sons, distance, pride, recognition and the moment when recognition comes too late.
The competition deadline is over. The film is out. At some point a project has to stop being a timeline full of versions and become a film that belongs to its audience.
Four small clips. Four different problems to solve.
AI did not remove filmmaking decisions. It multiplied them.
Research & story
Historical references, Shahnameh beats, Ferdowsi's life and a narrative frame that could make the epic emotionally legible in four minutes.
Character continuity
Faces, ages, armor, Rakhsh, the armband, props and locations had to survive changes in lens, light and model generation.
Shot iteration
Prompts became closer to direction notes: blocking, lens language, sound, negative constraints, start frames and exact end states.
Edit & delivery
The generated material became a film only in the edit: rhythm, sound, transitions, trims, credits, watermarking and the final 4:04 export.
“The difficult part was never generating an image that looked cinematic. It was making the next image remember what the previous one meant.”
Now the film is out. The only thing left is to let it be judged.
The final cut is public on Higgsfield. Whatever happens in the competition, this project became a useful experiment in what generative filmmaking is actually good at — and where storytelling, taste, continuity and editing still have to come from the filmmaker.