Synopsis:
The film follows Taher, a young Kurdish man who is summoned for compulsory military service. During the medical examination, the military doctor notices a lock pierced into Taher’s back. We flash back to his childhood in a remote village, where he was diagnosed with a hereditary and incurable illness known as “Fear Disease”—a condition passed down through generations as a result of witnessing or experiencing mass violence such as genocide. In desperation, Taher’s parents seek the help of Ghaderi, a wandering dervish, who inserts a lock into his back, miraculously curing him. In the present, the doctor removes the lock, causing the Fear Disease to return uncontrollably. Taher is placed in quarantine.

Award:
The film won Best Director at the third edition of the Kobani International Film Festival, which was dedicated to the Kurdish filmmaker Yılmaz Güney.

 About the Director:
Mohammad Reza Ardalan is a Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker and screenwriter, born in Ravansar, a town in western Iran. He studied cinema and screenwriting at Tehran’s Art University and Soore University. He has written two feature-length scripts and worked as an assistant director on several short films.