The Son and the Moon - Denmark

The Son and the Moon consists of a courageous and honest six-year journey by a Danish-Iranian filmmaker, Roja Pakari, portraying her struggle with cancer, her love and her huge project mapping her family’s dramatic history. It is existential poetry with no filters, featuring an unforgettable woman on both sides of the camera. 

Danish-Iranian filmmaker Pakari faces the most challenging period of her 36-year life. While pregnant and expecting her son Oskar, she is diagnosed with incurable cancer. Terminally ill and responsible for a small child, she tries to find herself. The Son and the Moon captures her dramatic journey, candidly documenting her everyday life and thoughts on living with a disease that could cost her everything. How should you live your life when your precious time on Earth may run out too soon? Roja does not feel sorry for herself. She strives to be present and to map her Iranian heritage and her family’s dramatic history, which took a new turn when her politically active parents fled Iran after the revolution and ended up in Denmark. 

The Son and the Moon is very much not a film overshadowed by death. It is an unexpected love story and a brave (self-)portrait of a woman who is a mother, wife, daughter and, above all, an artist. 

You might think a director filming her own incurable illness and family life would be just too private. Not so The Son and the Moon, in which Pakari turns her situation into an unforgettable letter to her son. The portrayal of Pakari’s attempt to pass the story of her life on to her six-year-old boy is profoundly moving, and the film is a life-affirming story of existence. It is about so much more than cancer and grief. It covers family life, motherhood, being split between cultures, hope and the legacy we leave to the next generation. 

The scenes featuring Roja and Oskar are heart-wrenching without ever becoming banal. He doesn’t grasp the seriousness of the situation, of course, and looks at his mum like a stranger in the hospital bed. They are genuine, simple scenes, quivering with emotion. Stylistically, the film is an extremely successful mixture of raw video diary and a poetic, essayistic study of the real and metaphorical Iran from which Roja has come and which she hopes to pass on to her son. The film is also a complex study of the present, past and future – crystalised snapshots of moments – the now of which Pakari struggles to be part while she still can, the past she fears will be lost along with her and the future her son will face without her. 

The Son and the Moon is an honest work of art that never descends into navel-gazing. It poses questions and opens itself up to the world, offering both Oskar and the audience new ways of understanding themselves. 

Roja Pakari graduated from the National Film School of Denmark in 2015. She worked on various award-winning feature films from 2013 to 2017, including Love Child directed by Eva Mulvad. She has also directed and produced numerous music videos and TV programmes and acted as a mentor in projects involving young adults. 

Pakari and her family escaped the Islamic Revolution in the 80s and were granted asylum in Denmark. The Son and the Moon marks her feature debut. 

Emilie Adelina Monies is a Danish filmmaker based in Oslo and Copenhagen. A graduate of both Fatamorgana – the Danish School of Art Photography and the Norwegian Film School, Monies makes conceptual documentaries. She worked as a production assistant on several documentaries, e.g. Cherry Tale (2019), School of Seduction (2019), Aquarela (2018) and the upcoming Missing Films. She also worked as a cinematographer on I Walk (2020) and Gina Jaqueline - Caught in a Dream (2018). 
 

Denniz Göl Bertelsen is an editor and screenwriter. He graduated as an editor from the National Film School of Denmark in 2017. Bertelsen has edited a number of documentaries, including The Cave (2019), which was nominated for an Oscar. He made his debut as a screenwriter with the documentary Kandis for Life (2021), which he also edited.

Founder of Sonntag Pictures and film producer Sara Stockmann has produced over 30 documentary films and series since 2005. Several of the films have won awards outside Denmark – including Janus Metz’ Cannes & Emmy-winning documentary film Armadillo, and Bobbi Jene by Oscar-nominated director Elvira Lind, which won a Tribeca Festival Award. In 2024, Danish Film Directors presented Stockmann with the IB Award, which goes to courageous, innovative and anarchistic Danish producers. Sara Stockmann is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science.  

Original title: Min arv bor i dig   

International title:  The Son and the Moon  

Directors: Roja Pakari, Emilie Adelina Monies 

Screenwriters: Roja Pakari, Denniz Göl Bertelsen 

Producer: Sara Stockmann 

Production company: Sonntag Pictures 

Distribution company:  Sonntag Pictures 

Premiere in home country: 18.03.2024 

Length: 94 minutes.