As directors we always look for stories that examine the depth of human nature and psychology, stories that can ultimately shine a light on the existential doubts, the loneliness and suffering of the human condition. During our search, we came across a story that spoke of the co-existence, within a family of two different religions. This led us to examine the fermentation, or the “chemical reaction” that transpires when different religions and different cultures come together and interact in a greater specter.
The title IMAN, which is the name of one of the protagonists, in Arabic means “faith”. All three stories exhibit extreme behaviors that are motivated by the protagonists’ religious or ideological beliefs. These behaviors ultimately bring chaos and destruction to their lives and the lives of their close ones.
The plot initially unfolds in three parallel, overlapping stories. The need to belong, the search for meaning in a world that changes constantly, the feeling of loneliness and seclusion when everything around you collapses set the tone for the storyline, resonating in a collage of emotions and colors.
The action builds gradually and masterfully through the development of highly universal themes: fanaticism, xenophobia, alienation and diversity, from the social, familial, and personal perspective. Through these issues we aim to touch the European, but also a wider universal audience. The film has the mood of a silent and internal grief that gradually passes from the agony of loneliness to the deafening manifestation of despair and pain: the radicalization of behavior. Each story has an explosive conclusion, which unleashes repressed emotions – anger, hatred, love, pleasure, but also sorrow, despair and frustration. The facades maintained by ideals collapse when those ideals prove to be illusory and deceptive.