Between mythology and tragedy, Angela Mrad opens the gates to CELESTIA

'I don’t ask what’s next in cinema. I create what comes next' – Angela Mrad

In her latest interview, filmmaker and writer Dr. Angela Mrad reveals the creative vision behind her cinematic project, CELESTIA – UNMASKING SOLARA, emphasizing that the work goes beyond telling a conventional film story. Her ambition is to construct an entire mythology—one with its own universe, characters, symbols, mysteries, and destiny.

Mrad explains that CELESTIA was born first as a vision. She intended to create a world that transcends the boundaries of a traditional film, where every character, symbol, and element of Solara carries its own history and meaning, leaving space for the universe to continue evolving. Speaking about her relationship with cinema, Mrad summarizes her creative philosophy through a series of striking statements: “I don’t ask what’s next in cinema. I create what comes next.” She adds: “I don’t follow the cinematic world. I build worlds of my own.”

On her creative process, she states: “I create what exists first only in my vision.” And when describing her approach to directing: “I don’t direct what the camera sees. I direct what the audience feels.” She further defines her cinematic ambition: “I don’t ask where cinema is going. I decide where I want to take it.” Between Mythology and Tragedy For Mrad, the strength of CELESTIA lies precisely in its fusion of mythology and tragedy. Mythology, in her vision, creates the universe, its symbols, its characters, and its destinies.

Tragedy gives those figures their human dimension through love, conflict, loss, choices, and their confrontation with fate. Mrad explains that tragedy does not necessarily depend on bloodshed or death, but rather on the transformation imposed upon characters by what happens to them. Her vision draws upon classical conceptions of tragedy, including those of Racine and Aristotle, leading to the idea of catharsis—the experience through which the audience does not merely observe the characters’ suffering, but emotionally passes through it.

She describes the world of CELESTIA as dark, enclosed, and emotionally charged, where the atmosphere itself becomes almost a physical sensation. Yet the journey through darkness ultimately leads toward emotional transformation—a process she identifies as the essence of catharsis. A Love That Challenges Fate At the heart of this mythology stands Celestia Thorne, a character Mrad wrote and envisioned before bringing her to the screen, alongside Jax Vesper – “The Shadow,” a figure embodying power, mystery, and the darkness that ultimately disrupts Celestia’s destiny.

Mrad reveals that the relationship between the two characters is built around an intense, profound, and almost impossible love—a love that is born where it should never exist. They are two people seemingly opposed by everything, yet drawn together by something more powerful than themselves.

Between them exists the desire to love, but also the fear of losing one another, betrayal, wounds from the past, and one devastating question: What remains of love when the heart and destiny choose different paths? For Mrad, this is not simply a love story between two people. It is a force capable of transforming their entire world. She captures the essence of their relationship in one defining thought: “Sometimes, the greatest love is not the one that ends with two people being together. It is the one that, even when it cannot be lived, remains eternal in the hearts of those who carried it.” Through this vision, Angela Mrad presents CELESTIA – UNMASKING SOLARA as a journey that reaches beyond the screen: a mythology to discover, a tragedy to feel, and an emotional experience designed not merely to make the audience see a world, but to feel it.