Soul Compass

Logline: A poor wanderer's journey for treasure transforms into a spellbinding quest of self-discovery, leading him where he least expected.

This photogrammetric animation has been generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

director’s statement

"Soul Compass is inspired by the profound wisdom of Rumi's timeless 13th century poem, 'In Cairo Dreaming of Baghdad, In Baghdad Dreaming of Cairo'. It was eye-opening to uncover that this archetypal hero's quest was the original muse for Paulo Coelho's widely popular, 'The Alchemist'!

I, like most people, wasn't aware of this.

My aim is to pay homage to this rich moral teaching by anchoring it within its original Persian context through the lens of my artistic practices in new media and creative technology.

I'm excited to engage in this fusion of LiDAR scanning and experimental 3D animation techniques, a visual tapestry that seamlessly harnesses classical narrative structures into new forms has emerged!

Soul Compass invites audiences of all ages to reflect upon the universal pursuit of meaning that guides our very souls."

- Maziar Ghaderi
Toronto, February 2024