The Day I Disappeared is a film essay based on the personal story of the film-maker who fled from Iran and travelled through what was a completely new and unknown world for her: Europe. It is also an effort to shed light on an internal process of alienation, an individualisation of the term ‚refugee’ or ‚asylum-seeker’. The unconventional narrative uses the patterns of Persian poetry – with visual metaphors, dance elements and rhymes. A lot of the material is found 16mm- and 8mm-footage that mirrors the director’s memories of her own trip through Europe more than twenty years ago. The images of the main character’s dance also reflect on the alienation of the individual. The combination of all these creative approaches evokes a special world between reality and fairy tale.

»Even though Atousa Bandeh Ghiasabadi’s film essay is highly personal, it crosses personal borders at the same time and, with its philosophical approach to the subject, can reach thousands of migrants in similar dilemmas. After all, most people start to think about their identity once they have exchanged the place they were born for a foreign land. Who am I, why am I here, who are these people surrounding me and who am I in the context of my new country? What should I do with ‚my original me’? This is what makes this film so special. And the message is even stronger when placed in its political context.«
– Ludmila Cvikova

Awards for ›Roozi ke man napadid shodam‹
Netpac Award, International Rotterdam filmfestival 2011