Two Apples

When a young woman leaves her homeland in search of a better future, she brings with her a single memento from her past: a ripe apple studded with fragrant cloves. But just as her new life is beginning to unfold, tragedy strikes, calling her home.

In Kurdish culture, Sêva mêxekrêj, or the clove apple, is more than a simple keepsake—it embodies the deepest and most profound human emotions. In traditional folktales and stories, apples were gifted to a beloved as a token of romantic love, but in recent years clove apples have taken on even greater meaning and become potent symbols of cultural exchange and peace.

Embroidered with magical futurism and near-Proustian elegance, Bahram Javahery’s animated short Two Apples employs a painstaking technique of hand-carved clay animation akin to a form of bas-relief. Incorporating elements of light and shadow, the film creates movement that is both sculptural and fluid. With gentle tactility and exquisite attention to detail, Two Apples becomes the physical embodiment of the story it is telling: a labour of love infused with timeless humanism that recalls a sense of belonging, of home and the tender perfume of hope.