I was a child when this incident happened to me, only experiencing without having a proper voice.  I hope that this is my breakthrough to finally express  myself about how I felt in ways I couldn’t at that time... My hopes for Paper Planes, Don’t Always Soar is that  it should be something straight to the point, real,  concise and that people can take away something from it no matter the kind of life they have lived.
 
I draw a lot of inspiration in terms of storytelling from one of my favourite director-writers of all  time, Celine Sciamma. Her films are done simply which somehow makes the human drama so  relatable, even with subgenres like thriller and fantasy. I admire how she let her characters come  to life without the aid of much extravagance. Whether it is about a band of black schoolgirls from  the suburbs of Paris [Bande De Filles, 2014] or a pair of an unreliable mother and an anxious daughter [Petite Maman, 2021], her subjects are basically about the overlooked, unrecognized and unheard. All these characters are in search of a safe sanctuary and hope. Similarly, to my characters Dana, Andri and Rina, the effects of trauma should be paid attention to. I hope that through them, they are able to bear and portray the invisible marks of experiences that may be too shocking to be easily represented or remembered in our everyday lives.