The Chilling And Suspense-Filled Mystery Asks: How Far Would You Go To Save Your Child?
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Carl Roberts 
Directed by Academy Award Nominee Cyrus Neshvad, the frightening trailer asks us: How far would you go to save your Child? Find out this October in cinemas.
Cynefilms is proud to announce that its compelling feature film Child, directed by Oscar nominee Cyrus Neshvad, will be released in UK cinemas. The release date is from 2nd October.
THE PREMISE
With their young son running out of time, Anne and Greg are willing to sacrifice everything for one last chance to save him. However, after crossing an unforgivable moral line, they find themselves trapped in a nightmare. In this nightmare, every choice demands an even greater price.
Neshvad received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2023 for The Red Suitcase. This gripping drama follows a teenage Iranian girl who is fleeing an arranged marriage. Child marks his first feature. Importantly, it asks a question with no comfortable answer. What would any parent do, and where would they stop, to save a dying child?
THE WORLD PREMIERE
Child had its World Premiere in the First Feature strand of the 2026 Raindance Film Festival. At this festival, it was nominated for the Discovery Award for Best Debut Feature. Early reactions praised the film’s unrelenting atmosphere and moral bleakness. Reviews came in from outlets including Filmhounds Magazine and Warped Perspective.
Filmhounds Magazine awarded the film four stars. It praised how “Neshvad pushes the boundaries of horror cinema focused on grief, love, and desperation with this twisty, unpredictable, fantastical horror” whilst Warped Perspective added that “Child works effectively on its own terms, keeping a very humane, character-focused approach throughout its bizarre literal and metaphorical journey.”
Child stars César Award winner Malik Zidi (Oxygen), Brigitte Urhausen (Fils), Lydia Indjova (Sunny Beach), Anne Klein (The Roaming) and Dmytro Yaroshenko (L’été de Jahia).
CYRUS NESHVAD STATEMENT
The film CHILD was born from a dual artistic desire. First, the desire to explore a form of horror cinema built on off-screen tension, where the threat remains invisible yet omnipresent, and where suspense tightens until a final revelation reshapes the entire narrative. Then, the wish to reach this realm of terror through a deeply realistic framework, because horror is never more powerful than when it is rooted in psychological truth.
At the heart of the film lies the theme of guilt. The story questions how far one can go to save a loved one, and at what point this impulse—initially driven by love—transforms into a monstrous act from which there is no turning back.
This theme is not merely fictional; it stems from something profoundly personal. The wounded childhood that permeates the film likely originates in my own. I was five years old when my family had to flee Iran, leaving behind a country collapsing into violence. Exile, at that age, is not an idea, it is an uprooting. It breaks something inside you; it burns away innocence before you can understand what is happening. That sense of loss, of diffuse danger, of a fragile and shifting identity has stayed with me ever since — and naturally finds its way into CHILD.
The film becomes a way of revisiting those early shadows: overwhelming fear, silent fragility, and the feeling of being thrust too soon into a world you are not yet able to comprehend. The horror in the story draws its strength from this intimate experience—one of a child who chooses nothing, endures everything, and whose perception of the world fractures too early.
CHILD is at once a story of guilt, a story of love gone astray, and a distant echo of lost innocence. A film in which the monster is not only hidden in the darkness, but also in the old wounds we carry within ourselves.
– Cyrus Neshvad, Director
Child will be in UK cinemas from 2nd October.
Introducing Carl! As the News Editor at Future of the Force, Carl has been an invaluable member of our team since early 2016. His expertise and dedication have made him an integral part of our editorial staff. Beyond his professional role, Carl is a fervent supporter of Liverpool F.C. and an avid follower of pop culture. He has a deep passion for Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the iconic movie franchises Star Wars and Star Trek.
He can be found either at his neighborhood cinema, enjoying the latest releases on the big screen, or at home streaming the newest blockbuster movies.
