Once upon a time
A film about the quiet process of removing what was never yours
Take a moment before scrolling.
A line to keep
“So one day… you stopped building. And you began to… remove.”
A Reflection
The film opens a quiet realization.
This reflection follows what happens after.
There are versions of yourself you were taught to become.
Ways of speaking, loving, performing, surviving.
Over time, repetition starts feeling like identity. But healing is not always becoming more. Sometimes, it is removing what was never truly yours.
The character.
The costume.
The script.
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The Daily Mental Selfcare Cards
Wellness is a daily practice, not a destination. These guided mental selfcare cards are designed for the moments when you need to pause, reconnect with your inner wisdom, and nurture your mind with intention. Each day brings a new ritual — a gentle prompt to slow down and return to yourself.
Behind the Film
A few references that shaped this visual language — and the way love is quietly redefined.
Fashion — Sculpting the senses by Iris van Herpen
Garments as psychological architectures.
Organic structures that resemble identities in mutation: translucent layers, skeletal silhouettes, liquid textures, sculptural forms that feel simultaneously protective and restrictive.
A visual language for:
- the character
- the costume
- the performed self
Not fashion as ornament.
Transformation as anatomy.
Philosophy — The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
A philosophy centered around liberation from external validation. The unsettling realization that many identities are socially constructed performances:
adaptations designed for approval, safety, or belonging.
A conceptual foundation for the film’s central inversion: healing not as becoming more, but as removing what was built for others.
Music — cellophane by FKA twigs
A body performing softness while quietly disappearing underneath it.
Fragility exposed as spectacle. Identity dissolving under observation.
The exhaustion of trying to remain lovable through performance.
The emotional atmosphere of vulnerability, surreal femininity, emotional exposure, self-awareness and collapse as revelation. A reference for the moment the character becomes conscious of itself.
Fairytale — Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault
A fairytale traditionally built around awakening. But Once Upon a Time quietly reverses the myth.
No prince.
No external rescue.
No transformation through becoming chosen.
Instead, a return to self after years of unconscious performance.
The castle becomes symbolic: a beautiful psychological structure built over the self — until one day, something inside finally wakes up.
Maybe healing was never about becoming more — but removing what was never yours.