Aria a black Austrian new mother, attends a lavish garden party by her partner Jakob’s parents to celebrate the arrival of their grandchild, Luce. Nestled deep in the Austrian countryside, Aria finds herself thrust into a world of privilege, feeling isolated, exoticized, and unseen. Everyone fawns over Luce, while her recovering body is scrutinized and Luce's skin tone discussed, her concerns dismissed by Jakob. Sleep-deprived, she starts questioning herself. When Aria discovers the family secretly planning to go behind their backs to install their will and explicitly ignore her and Jakob’s wishes for their child a shift happens within her. She realizes this is about control. And that will stop here. It’s time to step up and be the woman and mother she wants to be.
Anouk Shad is a producer, writer, and entrepreneur of Austrian and South Sudanese descent. She began her career at Terra Mater Film Studios, working on projects such as The Ivory Game, executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. Currently, she is developing her feature film, Río Masacre, selected for the Austrian Film Institute’s Talent Lab. Anouk co-founded Gewächshaus, Austria’s first and the DACH region’s largest network for BIPOC filmmakers, championing film as a path to a more just society. She is an alumna of Realness Institute's Creative Producer Indaba and a member of the European Film Academy.
Melody Alia Micmacher is a Franco-Moroccan filmmaker and producer who grew up in a small village in Burgundy. She moved to London to study at Central Saint Martins, where she nurtured her passion for art and film. Now based in Berlin, she collaborates as an independent producer with Netflix (Spain & Greece), ZDF/ZDF Zoom, and ARTE. Her latest documentary series, Digital Empire, was nominated for Der Deutsche Fernsehpreis in the "Best Documentary Series" category. Her short films have screened at Festival d’Agadir, Images Festival, New York Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, and Oberhausen. For the past three years, she has also been part of the video production and design team for the performance piece Ophelia's Got Talent (Florentina Holzinger), playing to sold-out audiences across Europe.