Watch the Film Here
Frozen: My Eggs and Me, is a new 13-minute short documentary by emerging filmmaker Shamin Yazdani, that premiered at Show Me Shorts Film Festival over the weekend. Followed by a packed encore screening on Sunday night.
Single and with a mid-thirties birthday approaching, Yazdani confronts the question she’s long been avoiding: should she freeze her eggs?
Born in Iran, raised in Ōtautahi Christchurch, and having spent her twenties overseas, Yazdani uses her own story to unpack what at first seems like a simple decision. However, as she embarks on this deeply personal journey, the question of motherhood reveals itself to be intertwined with something much bigger: her identity as the daughter of Iranian immigrants.
“What started as a film about a personal choice around fertility, evolved into an exploration of identity, legacy, and survival, framed through the lens of my experience as an immigrant woman and first generation tauiwi New Zealander.” says Yazdani. “The film became a metaphor for how we deal with the weight of the past, and how we try to carve out a future on our own terms.”
Co-Produced with Sam Wilton, with cinematography by Julian Vares, edited in collaboration with Alexander Gandar, and original music by Yazdani herself and friend/collaborator Jefferson Chen aka Goodspace, Frozen: My Eggs and Me brings a visually intimate and emotionally resonant story to the screen.
Made with support by New Zealand On Air through the Day One Shorts Emerging Filmmaker Programme, along with mentorship from Julia Parnell, the film reflects a growing appetite for nuanced, personal storytelling from underrepresented voices.
“I had entered a stage in my life where I was having a lot of conversations around fertility, but I wasn’t seeing experiences like my own reflected in (the) media, especially through an immigrant lens. I wanted to make something that honoured those perspectives – complex, grounded, and unapologetically diasporic. This film is both a celebration and a reclamation of that. ”
My Egg and Me – A Personal Story of Fertility, Identity, and Legacy is available to view on RNZ, MāoriPlus and Day One