USA/Portugal
DOMESTIC DEMON
6 MIN
2026
A housebound mother's hunger for agency and control among the mutating textures and temporalities of her home sets off an uncanny transformation. Shadow and silhouette capture the surreal ways in which time spent dutifully in the home changes us as we dare to ask, “how can I still be free?” A portrait of matrescence and post-partum depression in the time of pandemic lockdown. Narrated in Western Armenian, the filmmaker's endangered mother tongue.
Cast & Crew
Producer: Anahid Yahjian
Director: Anahid Yahjian
Script: Anahid Yahjian
Director of Photography: Lauren Guiteras
Production Design:
Music:
Sound: Armen Bazarian
Editing: Emily Cargill
Cast: Anahid Yahjian
Production. Medulla Creative
Awards
Black Bear Award for Best Use of Sound, Athens International Film and Video Festival, 2026
Cast & Crew
Producer: Anahid Yahjian
Director: Anahid Yahjian
Script: Anahid Yahjian
Director of Photography: Lauren Guiteras
Production Design:
Music:
Sound: Armen Bazarian
Editing: Emily Cargill
Cast: Anahid Yahjian
Production. Medulla Creative
Awards
Black Bear Award for Best Use of Sound, Athens International Film and Video Festival, 2026
Anahid Yahjian
Anahid Yahjian, born in Bulgaria in 1989, is an Armenian American independent writer, director and producer of experimental, documentary and narrative cinema. Her work is driven by questioning and pursuit: of history, of power, of memory, of liminality, of the surreal and the sublime. Her commitment to telling true stories (even if they come from her imagination) was shaped by an early love for visual storytelling that was formalized in college and took flight during her coming of age in Armenia. There, she produced the internationally awarded narrative short140 Drams (Camerimage, Clermont-Ferrand 2013), laid the creative groundwork for the feature documentary Spiral (IDFA Bertha Fund 2015, Golden Apricot 2017) and shot and directed the viral digital documentary Levon: A Wondrous Life (2013). After returning to Los Angeles, she shot and directed the experimental cine-triptych, Corpus Callosum (2014-2016) and directed the narrative science-fiction short Transmission (BFI Flare, Vancouver QFF 2019). She was later commissioned by the City of Glendale’s ReflectSpace gallery to create the docu-memoir Hishé (2021). Her latest experimental work, Domestic Demon (2025), is supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and had its world premiere at the Rotterdam IFF. She is currently completing post-production on her latest narrative work, Nelly. A citizen of the world, she is based in her hometown of Los Angeles.
Filmography
Armentsi: the Armenians of Bulgaria (doc., 2010), The Good, Bad & Ugly of Ara (doc., 2011), Levon: A Wondrous Life (short, 2013), Corpus Callosum (short, 2016), Transmission (short, 2019), Silly for the Westside (doc., 2019), Hands in (doc., 2020), A Beautiful Thing (doc., 2021), Hishé (doc., 2021), Shapeshifter (doc., 2022), Domestic Demon (doc., 2025).
Anahid Yahjian, born in Bulgaria in 1989, is an Armenian American independent writer, director and producer of experimental, documentary and narrative cinema. Her work is driven by questioning and pursuit: of history, of power, of memory, of liminality, of the surreal and the sublime. Her commitment to telling true stories (even if they come from her imagination) was shaped by an early love for visual storytelling that was formalized in college and took flight during her coming of age in Armenia. There, she produced the internationally awarded narrative short140 Drams (Camerimage, Clermont-Ferrand 2013), laid the creative groundwork for the feature documentary Spiral (IDFA Bertha Fund 2015, Golden Apricot 2017) and shot and directed the viral digital documentary Levon: A Wondrous Life (2013). After returning to Los Angeles, she shot and directed the experimental cine-triptych, Corpus Callosum (2014-2016) and directed the narrative science-fiction short Transmission (BFI Flare, Vancouver QFF 2019). She was later commissioned by the City of Glendale’s ReflectSpace gallery to create the docu-memoir Hishé (2021). Her latest experimental work, Domestic Demon (2025), is supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and had its world premiere at the Rotterdam IFF. She is currently completing post-production on her latest narrative work, Nelly. A citizen of the world, she is based in her hometown of Los Angeles.
Filmography
Armentsi: the Armenians of Bulgaria (doc., 2010), The Good, Bad & Ugly of Ara (doc., 2011), Levon: A Wondrous Life (short, 2013), Corpus Callosum (short, 2016), Transmission (short, 2019), Silly for the Westside (doc., 2019), Hands in (doc., 2020), A Beautiful Thing (doc., 2021), Hishé (doc., 2021), Shapeshifter (doc., 2022), Domestic Demon (doc., 2025).
PHOTOS
