Twelve-year-old Zaffan leads a carefree existence, despite the constraints imposed on her by her strict teachers and parents. She likes to make funny TikTok clips, to fight and make up with her girlfriends. They swear not to keep secrets from each other and boldly defy customs and religious norms – until the day Zaffan has her first period which precipitates a radical shift in the rebellious girl’s world. Suddenly, everyone around her, including her friends, shun and bully her, while her body undergoes a drastic and monstrous transformation. Meanwhile, a powerful and mighty tiger is roaming the countryside.

Afraid of being branded a demon, Zaffan tries to keep calm and ignore the community’s ostracization. But a charlatan is hired to drive out the girl’s supernatural powers. She resolves to use her newfound abilities, bares her claws and becomes an invincible heroine. In an uninhibited display of defiance, she dances the frustration out of her body and turns fearlessly and freely to another world. Drawing upon folkloric myths and fairy tales, Amanda Nell Eu uses drastic body horror elements to visualise a girl’s disturbing and bloody transformation and celebrates the power that this metamorphosis releases in the young woman … also arousing the curiosity of someone else.

Content note