Yegane Moghaddam is an illustrator, animator, and filmmaker from Iran.
Our Uniform is a short film that is humorous and creative while also carrying a lot of weight. Yegane's cartoonish art style makes the film initially feel playful and clever, but underneath is a serious story about the strict rules and limits placed on girls growing up in Iran. That mix of humor and the climatic emancipation makes the film unexpectedly powerful to me.
I loved hearing about her creative process for this film. Instead of drawing everything digitally, she used real Iranian school uniforms as the canvas for her animation. The fabric's folds and textures became part of the film itself. On top of that, she layered digital animation(the hand-drawn style fits really well with the real clothing beneath) over stop-motion shots of the clothes. It felt personal and inventive at the same time, turning something ordinary into something alive.
What moved me most was hearing how, even though "Our Uniform" film brought her global recognition, she hasn’t been able to go back to Iran since. That reality made me realize how much risk and sacrifice can come with simply telling your story through art. This being said, Yegane brushed it off as no big deal and declared that she wasn't even trying to raise awareness about an issue; she just wanted to point out the irony of daily life in Iran.