If I were to translate my childhood to the screen, it wouldn’t come out like Retrograde, but the film’s reflections on parental control and overprotectiveness connect with widespread youth experiences. My film embodies two things that I find most valuable in cinema: subverting audience expectations and highlighting undervalued or overlooked perspectives, such as those of children. The horror genre serves this mission because it provides incredible freedom of storytelling and breaks down social barriers to expressing trauma.