Khobs & Chai, is an audio-visual conversation that revisits my childhood memories of baking Middle-Eastern bread with my grandmother. When I was younger, she often shared stories of living through the fall of the monarchy in Iraq, the Iran-Iraq war and the Gulf war. Despite experiencing difficult and horrifying events, my grandmother’s spirit has always been positive and warm. This short film is a platform for her to share the timeless wisdom and positive energy that she exudes.

Spending time in the kitchen allowed me to learn about her life and the many hardships Iraqi-women have faced over the years. My grandmother has been living with my family for twenty years now, and has pretty much raised me. Through this conversation, I wanted to explore the question: what kind of life lessons do elders and motherly-figures teach us?

Working with the medium of stop-motion has been an eye-opening experience that allowed me to focus on time in a whole different way. Each image is shot at a frame-rate of a half a second, accumulating into minutes and then compressed again into seconds. My grandmother has a playful and young at heart personality and I wanted to draw from that energy. Stop-motion was the perfect medium in recreating a lighthearted atmosphere. I found inspiration from animated films that I often watched growing up, like Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) or Corpse Bride (2005).