Rastakhiz – Sound Design & Mixing

Rastakhiz is a short dramatic film centered around two sisters living through a period of war and ideological conflict. Although they share the same physical space, they hold fundamentally different beliefs, creating an increasing sense of tension and confrontation between them. As the story progresses, this conflict ultimately leads to a tragic confrontation in which the authoritarian sister is killed by someone who shares her own ideology.

The film takes place entirely indoors, primarily across two rooms within a hospital. One of the main challenges in the sound design was establishing the hospital environment and making the audience feel the presence of the location without relying on exterior visuals. I created a detailed hospital soundscape using subtle environmental elements, distant activity, room tone, and carefully controlled ambience.

In contrast, the world outside the hospital was represented through an intense and constantly threatening war atmosphere. I designed the distant explosions, gunfire, military activity, and surrounding destruction with varying levels of proximity and intensity, creating the feeling that the war was constantly present just beyond the hospital walls.

The intensity and distance of the exterior war sounds were also carefully shaped in relation to the emotional tension between the two sisters. As their ideological conflict escalates, the outside world becomes increasingly present and oppressive, creating a parallel between the external war and the internal conflict between the characters.

A key aspect of the sound design was maintaining the contrast between the intimate, confined hospital environment and the violent, chaotic world outside. This contrast gradually becomes part of the film’s emotional language, allowing the soundscape itself to contribute to the narrative and build tension without relying solely on dialogue or visuals.

The overall sound design was created to make the audience feel both the physical confinement of the hospital and the psychological pressure of a war taking place just beyond its walls.