Iron Tears
Short Film
Project Type: Short Film
Project Status: Pre-Production
Director/ Writer/ Producer/ Lead: Darby Hannon
Producers: Evan Mack, Kim Magnusson, and Piccolo Sood
Actor: Raz Fritz
LOGLINE
When a mysterious stranger named Orpheus arrives at a remote homestead searching for his lost horse, he becomes entangled in a fraught marriage between a young wife and her domineering husband, leading to an archetypal confrontation where love, power, and freedom hang in the balance.
SYNOPSIS
We open as the sun is beginning to set, a horse crossing a river, past crosses for graves. In a rural setting, timeless in its simplicity, we find a woman washing dishes. Her husband comes back early from breaking horses, just in time for a stranger to show up, looking for a horse that bolted. Though the stranger says he will keep searching, the husband invites him to dinner. The stranger is asked about his name. And the husband learning that his name comes from the Greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice, a book his wife has recently been reading, demands the stranger recount the tragic love story to them all.
Through the recounting of this story, we try to piece together what is really going on under this seemingly innocent encounter. When it comes time for the wife to give her perspective on the story as to whether Eurydice is a damsel to be saved or a seductress to be condemned, she offers instead an archetypal journey we seem to have lost in our feminine psyches… that of a maiden who is not forced into the underworld by some man, but whose soul knows she has to descend for the next cycle of her fate. Our severed archetypes of Western mythology now need to die and be reborn. And a new version (though perhaps an even older version) of a love story is born.
MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT
The relevance of this film is both timeless and immediate. It is timeless in its human experience, but immediate as a reflection of what is happening currently with the shadow masculine way of life dying to something new we have yet to see. The shadow masculine is holding even tighter to its control, not because it is more powerful, but because it feels it is finally losing its pseudo-power. The male characters represent this shadow aspect as well as the masculine searching for a new way to be, answering a call to be valid, needed, seen, and loved. An invitation to step into its true power.
In this story, as seems fit for the state of the world, the heroine is the one who is leading this awakening through her connection to nature and her life or death need to break through her oppression; one that she has put on herself as much as men have. The feminine in her power demands presence, truth, and integrity. She creates as much as she destroys, and she destroys all barriers to sacred union. It is in this sacred union of masculine and feminine, be it energetic or biological- the primordial materials of our world- that we must come together to create a new one. The equality of male and female strength is in the idea that there is a physical battle for survival as well as an internal one, that is just as, if not more, important.
Meet The Filmmakers
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Darby Gaëlle Hannon
Writer/Director/Producer/Actor
Originally a scientist with a love for literature and poetry, Darby studied/ worked in evolution and genetic laboratories across America, Spain, Costa Rica, and South Africa. Eventually leaving science, she studied Meisner Technique at the Maggie Flanagan Acting Studio in New York City, then went on to receive her MFA in Professional Acting from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK.
As a writer/director her first play Albatross was selected by the groundbreaking LAByrinth Theatre Company as well as the Manhattan Theatre Festival’s 2021 season (which she directed and starred in). Previous one-acts of hers also premiered in New York City at the Kraine Theatre and Signature Theatre. Her short films Letters From a Traveler and Enough for a Lifetime (both of which she wrote/starred in) have premiered at Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Santa Fe International Film Festival, and Italy’s Nòt Film Festival. Currently she has two feature films in development. As an actress she has performed in many theatre productions between New York and the UK, but recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue more film and television. Hannon has been heralded as a “fresh new perspective” and a “knock out talent.”
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Evan Mack
Producer
Evan Mack is a creative environmental producer whose work sits at the intersection of storytelling, regeneration, and intuitive design. Drawing on a fifteen year career in action sports filmmaking, environmental production, global expedition production, Ayurvedic nutrition, and immersive experience design, Evan brings a rare blend of high-level creative direction and operational know-how. She has designed and launched innovative operating systems, managed multimillion-dollar creative projects, and led diverse teams through challenging location productions, safely. Her leadership style is dynamic and collaborative, marked by her ability to guide, co-create, envision, implement, nurture and laugh. She has lived in 9 countries and was raised by the wilderness of the Wyoming Teton Mountain Range, where she is currently based.
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Sophie Muzychenko
Director of Photography
Sophie Muzychenko is a Ukrainian cinematographer who moved to the UK after the war broke out. She’s been under Seamus McGarvey’s wing and shot and prepped second unit for him on ‘M’, Joe Wright’s latest TV series in Italy. Recently, Sophie also shot a screen adaptation of
James Joyce’s Ulysses, working with Fiona Shaw, Harriet Walter, and Adjoa Andoh — three of the UK’s finest actors. Her work is driven by a belief that cinematography is at its most powerful when it’s invisible, quietly carrying the heartbeat of a story. She gravitates toward the texture and truth of celluloid, and has shot extensively on both 35mm and 16mm.
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Kim Magnusson
Producer
Kim Magnusson is a Danish producer who executive produced Academy Award-winning I’M NOT A ROBOT in 2023, cementing his place as the most decorated producer in the Best Live Action Short Film category-including 2 Oscar wins and 7 nominations. Kim Magnusson has been the chairman of the Danish Producers Association for 9 years (the most ever), as well as chairman of the Danish Film Academy - a position he held from 1999-2019. Kim is a voting member of AMPAS® and as well as both The Danish and The European Film Academy. In 2010 he launched Dansk Film Kompagni to develop and produce high-end, commercial-driven film for the international market, and splits his time between Copenhagen, Denmark and Los Angeles, USA, where he has multiple projects in development.
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Piccolo Sood
Producer
Piccolo Sood is a film and television producer and business development executive with over two decades of international experience across the U.S., Europe, India, the Middle East, and the UK. His work spans development, production, acquisitions, financing, and distribution, bridging creative storytelling with commercial strategy.He is the Managing Partner and Producer at 1 Vision Films, a development and production company focused on bold, character-driven stories for the international market. The company supports filmmakers from early development through production and festival positioning, with a filmmaker-first approach and a strong emphasis on creative clarity. 1 Vision Films is currently collaborating with Academy Award–winning producer Rodrigo Teixeira on Isabel, directed by Gabe Klinger, an official selection of the Panorama section at the 2026 Berlinale. Piccolo is drawn to director-driven projects with a clear point of view and lasting cultural impact.
Your Help
IRON TEARS is a fiscally sponsored project of Cinematography for Actors, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donation will be tax-deductible!