MEET THE HEALER
ARURU
About the character
One of the last of her kind, Aruru is a spiritual healer whose techniques are only beknownst to her and her now perished lineage. The price of her sessions is hefty, and the waitlist is long, but her admirers multiply by day. Her patients travel to Dorion from other worlds with the hope of finding a cure to their long-lasting ailments that no other healer could think to address. Having maintained the same appearance for decades, she is thought to be an immortal spirit by some, and her temple is the most sacred place on her planet, Dorion.
About the actor
Iree Mann is an actor and filmmaker. Her credits include the films Butterfly, Dorion, and Open, along with stage performances in King Lear, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Laramie Project, and Trojan Women. Beyond acting, Iree is a screenwriter who practices meditation and enjoys swimming in her free time.
MEET THE PATIENT
ULRIC
About the character
A man who suffers from a constant feeling of floating and who will do anything to not feel this way. A tortured man. A persistent man. Ulric leaves his native Earth for Dorion, where he now calls home. The lush forests of this magical planet speak to his arid soul. He leads a simple, solitary life, watching the sun rise and set over the boundless hills of Dorion every day through the window of his studio apartment. After much patience and a long wait, he is now ready to meet Aruru to receive his 'forever' cure.
About the actor
Tom Paolino is a New York-based actor whose film and television credits include Law & Order: SVU, FBI (Seasons 2 and 5), Blue Bloods, FBI: Most Wanted (Seasons 2 and 6), and The Purge: Election Year. His stage work includes Pericles, Cymbeline, The Burial at Thebes, and From Here to Eternity. Tom also teaches yoga and coaches hockey.
MEET THE CREATOR
EREN GÜLFİDAN
Eren is an Istanbul-born, New York-based writer, director, and editor. Her films and screenplays have received support and recognition from The Gotham, The New York State Council on the Arts, The Future of Film is Female, and Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women's Filmmaker Program. Existential flight, obsession with healing, and feelings of entrapment are some of the themes present throughout her work.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
About a decade ago, I got intrigued by a private interplanetary mission that promised humans a new beginning on Mars. Of the 200,000 applicants, 10 would-be colonizers made it to the final round. Wanting to understand the reason behind their desire to leave Earth, I started watching the finalists' interviews with various news outlets. The impetus for this exodus came down to two things: a lack of love and connection these prospective voyagers felt here on Earth, and a desire to leave their unresolved traumas behind.
As someone who dealt with depression and anxiety in my 20s, I knew of this urge to escape well. I also knew that no type of external flight was the solution to internal turmoil. My search for answers and my journey of healing was extensive; it cost time, money, and a lot of work. Would moving to a different planet and starting fresh have expedited and simplified this process?
In a society that offers us more forms of therapy than we can name, it's easy to become obsessed with the idea of healing and to heavily rely on others for our mental wellness. But when do we realize that the all-consuming desire to fix ourselves can become an anxiety in and of itself? When do we pause and look inward? These are some of the questions I wanted to explore by creating Dorion, an imaginary world that is not too different from home, but only too far away.
CREDITS
SPECS
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