Alienated by the sexual wonderland of college life, a sheltered queer Iranian “boy” has an encounter with fairies who curse with an aroma that makes men hopelessly attracted to him as his body rots away like spoiled fruit.
TELL ME ABOUT THE FAIRIES is a coming-of-age psychosexual body horror film that explores queer self-hatred and desirability politics—how sexual value dictates human worth, and how the societal repulsion against gender deviance produces toxic shame within trans people. The story follows Kian Zadeh, a newly out ”gay” freshman at a University similar to the woodland campus of UC Santa Cruz. During his first few weeks at school, Kian grows viciously jealous of the sexual economy of his heteronormative classmates, craving to be desired in the ways that his cis girlfriends are. Ancestral fairies in the campus forests hear the wishes of his heart and implant a mysterious seed inside of him that produces an aroma that attracts men. While experiencing a new world of sexual power, Kian’s body begins to rot away as he begins to learn the truly violent nature of the male gaze. Viola, a trans outcast and the resident assistant at the dorms tries to help Kian, but Kian maliciously rejects her friendship until the fairy’s spell comes to a boiling point. The men on campus become overwhelmingly lecherous, as if they’re fruit flies mindlessly starving for Kian’s body. They stalk and harass Kian to the point in which he becomes agoraphobic, shutting himself away in his dorm room, but that doesn’t stop the spell from escalating. After a horrifying escape from the men to where the fairies reveal the earth-shattering truth about Kian’s identity (that *she* is actually a woman), Kian finally apologizes to Viola and accepts their sameness, which causes his body to disintegrate, leaving only the seed inside him behind. Viola takes the seed to the woods and buries it in a graveyard containing the deadnames of other trans people (like herself) who had encountered the fairies; for Kian to be reborn in truth.
Sepand "Sepi" Mashiahof is a second generation Iranian-American immigrant and trans-femme filmmaker, screenwriter, and musician. She holds a BA in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she wrote her senior thesis on Horror Film, using a feminist lens to explore the queer signifiers of canonized monsters throughout film history. After graduating, she moved to Oakland, CA where she cultivated relationships with the queer underground arts community through her work as Executive Director at Bay Area Girls Rock Camp, host of the cult Scream Queens Radio program, and member of industrial no wave band SBSM. These connections allowed her to pursue her passions as a filmmaker, where she directed a plethora of music videos before making her short film debut with Love You Forever, a psychological arthouse horror film which she wrote, directed, acted in, and composed the soundtrack for. Currently, Sepand is keeping a nest of nine feature screenplays warm while pursuing relationships with producers who love horror films and want to see queer/trans stories through them. As part of her own empowerment journey, she utilizes genre storytelling to create worlds of nuance in which trans protagonists can experience their arcs without the pressure of cissexist expectations.
Sundance Trans Possibilities Fellowship
