Mariam, a rebellious 27-year-old woman, gets deported from Spain after living there for ten years and is forced to return home to Western Sahara – a country that has been occupied by Morocco since the 1970s, and where there is little economic opportunity, particularly for women. Mariam crosses the border into her homeland carrying the guilt of failing the European dream and convinced that she must return to Spain no matter the cost.

Her family and home initially provide an anchor for Mariam. However, seeing her tattoos and Westernized values, her mother, sister, and brother push Mariam to conform to the gender and cultural norms of their community. As Mariam resists, their lingering resentments toward her abandonment of the family slowly surface.

Eimi Imanishi is a Japanese-US-American filmmaker. Her award-winning short films include BATTALION TO MY BEAT (2016) which won the Canal+ Award for Best International Short at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2017 and ONE-UP (2017). In 2018, she was a 2018 Sundance directing and screenwriting fellow. In 2025, she made her feature film debut with NOMAD SHADOW, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Filmography: 2016 BATTALION TO MY BEAT, 2017 ONE UP, 2021 3X13 (all short films), 2025 NOMAD SHADOW