Daria's Night Flowers (Short) | BFI Flare 2026
Something to interpret! Colours leak, run, and flash in this experimental archival collage drawn from old Iranian films.
Here at OBSCURAE, we've always championed short storytelling as the hunting ground for your next favourite filmmaker – and encouraged you not to skip the shorts programme! Welcome back to our Short Film Review Series, Sweet and Short.
There's a conflict of motion at the heart of Maryam Tafakory's experimental archival collage; between flashes of fire, pauses on pages, and liquids leaking across the screen, there is a range of speeds at which it moves – or doesn't move. Sometimes, someone is running, sometimes there are people sitting.
It's the voice over that carries the narrative – it's a story told steadily and in piecemeal, its telling flattened and crackling in the particular way that a tape recorder distorts sound. An unnamed woman tells the story – one about an illicit relationship between two other women who traded in things they could only share with each other.
Men inhabit the story, too, but none are named, and none are friendly. This antagonistic masculinity is seemingly the source of the flashes of fire – a juxtaposition against the opening images of rolling waves. There's definitely something elemental or primordial mixed into this cocktail. Something old coming up against something new, maybe, or titans of old fighting through avatars of modernity.
If it sounds like I'm describing or analysing this film more than I'm weighing up its qualities, I think that's because it invites critical viewing. It's not a fun watch, per se – it's an intense one that rewards wading into its depth of imagery.
The crowning technical achievement of the film is surely that it pulls from so many sources – seeing the credits of Daria's Night Flowers was like uncovering a treasure trove of obscure Iranian cinema. It's a testament to Tafakory's ability that she was able to assemble such a wide range of media into a cohesive vision.
Owing to its deeply experimental form, this is one that you've got to experience for yourself. But I think this was quietly one of the most powerful shorts in the All These Liberations collection.
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