A 2024 film by Nia Fekri and Zahra Haji Fath Ali Tehrani, in collaboration with YWMP and the young people in the project.

Over the course of 12 minutes, filmmaker Fekri takes viewers on an artistic storytelling adventure, marking Tehrani’s 20 years of involvement with the charity YWMP. 

Shot predominantly by Fekri in black and white using 16mm film, What’s Left After The Wave Hits? begins by exploring the difficult journey Tehrani experienced as a young person wanting to be a musician. 

The film has been made in collaboration with young people involved in YWMP who had the chance to show their version of the story through Fekri’s lens.

Tehrani was raised in a mixed heritage home; her mum an Irish Catholic, her father a Muslim Iranian. It was a tough upbringing, and one in which Tehrani couldn’t find the care to attend school. Music was the passion from the start, and Tehrani needed to find a way in. 

A difficult beat taught by Kate Garrett (founder of YWMP) started something off. Incorporating it into the first song she ever released, Tehrani felt like she was finally being listened to. She had a CD she could show people, and it made music a real tangible thing. Not just Tehrani alone with her drums or her band.

“The only safe spaces I have are the ones I create”.