FEATURE FILM: Chains

I landed back to Sydney with only a days rest and waking up to the text message from director/ producer Amin Palangi of working title feature film "Chains". This is a Information & Cultural Exchange managed first time feature and has been running since July this year.

The experience on this production is so surreal and what I term as serendipity at its highest level. I'm so grateful to be advised and mentored by people such as Amin and Billy Marshall Stone King in terms of acting on this project.

In terms of acting, well, I still have long to fulfill the proper training for it, however, I do find myself improving from just getting hands on experience and just giving it a go on diverse projects.

Anyhow, back to "Chains". I play the one of the lead characters in the film name "Anna" - a Vietnamese girl who has been dating an Iranian boy for the past 6 months. She faces issues with her mother, who is of a very conservative nature - disapproves.

A very typical story, but if you mixed it with 6 other cultural stories and a magical bus...the outcome will be very interesting.

Amin Palangi hired a full bus out on Wednesday in the city and we (myself, Vanna Seang [DOP]) were all pressed for time to get the right takes.

I myself, looking like a dead cat, had an internal battle against micro-sleeping on set. Yikes!

Maria Tran & actor Hatef Ahankoob