Milena Aboyan was born a Yazidi Kurd in Armenia in 1992. In 2010, she began a four-year acting training program in Germany. During the program, she played parts in several theatrical productions. After receiving her acting degree, she changed disciplines and began to focus on writing. She started working as an assistant dramatic advisor for an ARD TV series. In 2015, she began studying screenwriting at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. In 2019 she won the Emden Screenplay Award. Elaha is her final film at the Filmakademie. It was awarded the ‘Kaiju Cinema Diffusion Prize’ at the Locarno Film Festival.