Kiana Naghshineh Explores Grief and Memory Through Animation in IM AUTO TAPES UND BUTTERBROT

For filmmaker Kiana Naghshineh, the origins of her animated short IM AUTO TAPES UND BUTTERBROT came from a deeply personal place.

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While developing another story, someone close to her family received devastating news: a terminal cancer diagnosis. The emotional weight of that moment slowly reshaped the project she was working on, transforming it into a meditation on grief, memory, and the unknown.

The result is a film that does not simply confront death. Instead, it asks what remains after someone we love is gone.

Space as a Metaphor for Mortality

One of the central ideas in IM AUTO TAPES UND BUTTERBROT is the use of space as a metaphor.

Space is vast and largely unknowable. Humanity understands parts of it, but so much remains mysterious.

For Naghshineh, that mystery mirrors the experience of death.

Science can explain what happens to the body physically, but the larger questions remain open. What happens to the person we loved? Where do their memories go? What part of them remains in the world?

The film uses the cosmos to explore those questions without trying to answer them directly.

A Distinct Visual Style

Visually, the film draws inspiration from 1950s Soviet cosmonaut propaganda posters.

These posters often featured bold shapes, vivid colors, and stylized imagery celebrating space exploration. That aesthetic became the foundation for the film’s visual language.

The result is an animation style built on high contrast colors and flat graphic design that feels both nostalgic and strikingly modern.

It also reinforces the film’s cosmic themes while creating a visual rhythm that guides the viewer through its emotional landscape.

Building Rhythm Through Music

In animation, pacing and rhythm are critical.

Naghshineh describes the space sequence as the most challenging part of the film to construct. The timing of the visuals, the voice elements, and the animation itself had to move together in harmony.

Music played a crucial role in achieving that balance. The composer’s work helped shape the structure of the scene, allowing the animation to flow in a more meditative way.

Even the voice choices evolved during production. Instead of traditional dialogue, a more alien sounding vocal texture was used to preserve the atmosphere of drifting through space.

The Power of Memory

At the heart of IM AUTO TAPES UND BUTTERBROT is the idea that people never truly disappear.

When someone passes away, what remains are the memories they created and the stories they shared.

While making the film, Naghshineh experienced this firsthand. In conversations with her aunt before she passed, stories surfaced that had never been shared before. Memories of youth, experiences, and parts of life that only she could reveal.

Those stories became a lasting gift.

They reinforced the idea that a person’s presence continues through the lives of those who remember them.

A Film That Offers Comfort

Despite its themes, IM AUTO TAPES UND BUTTERBROT is not meant to leave audiences feeling devastated.

Naghshineh hopes viewers leave the theater feeling something closer to comfort.

Loss is already difficult. But stories can remind us to appreciate the time we have with the people we love.

In the end, the film becomes less about death and more about presence. A reflection on the memories that remain long after someone is gone.