Playing at the back end of Hot Docs is A Fox Under a Pink Moon, from director Mehrdad Oskouei. His film is about his niece, Soraya Akhlagi, an Afghan teen trying to emigrate to Europe through the Mediterranean.

Soraya does the heavy lifting in A Fox, shooting most of the footage, capturing her younger years. She tells not just her story but those of other families trying to cross towards Greece, safer than the countries they’re from.

Emigrating to Europe isn’t easy because of Turkish police sending them multiple steps back in a journey considered perilous. Most of A Fox takes place in Iran, where Soraya cares for herself and some stray cats.

This film captures day to day life of being an Afghan without spending a day in that country. A Fox Under The Pink Moon‘s Iranian scenes illuminates the sadness even in mundane tasks. Despite being in limbo in Iran, Soraya finds ways to express herself through song and through visual media. She does this in between attempts of emigrating, living in spaces full of bedbugs, and authorities catching her.

A Fox Under a Pink Moon is an emotional ride where a girl finds joy while waiting to escape Iran. In some scenes, people celebrate birthdays, and in another, she watches people leave Afghanistan especially after the Taliban’s takeover.

During this journey she asks herself questions, like whether or not to leave an abusive husband who beats her? Or whether or not she’ll see her mother before she dies, which is a grim question for a teen bride to ask.

Festival films like A Fox Under a Pink Moon follow and mix many stylistic staples in documentary films. But this particular one every emotion that it displays on screen both through animation and raw footage.