Directed in 1980 and released in 2013. On the issue of addiction in Iran in the 1980s. Mohsen's father is going to pass away soon due to an illness, however, Mohsen himself has been missing for 6 months. A BSc medicine student, he has become a drug addict and lost himself in the slums. Setting out to help him out of his conditions, and deliver his mother's care to him, his father starts searching for him. The movie is embedded in the social conditions of the 70s AD Iran, has a 70s Iranian chivalric tincture, religious color-as was the climate of the Iranian society at the time- and is blended with historic state propaganda. For the audience of that time, this movie would have received a fair score, as it touches on religious notions. However, the issue it addresses is far more complicated and sophisticated at this age, and its propaganda outlook can no longer attract significant commercial or critical attention.
Production
Gritty 1980s Tehran slums captured with uncomfortable documentary realism.
Acting
Iraj Ghaderi's crumbling patriarch — dignified despair in every wheeze.
Director
Saeed Motalebi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in 1980, shelved for 33 years — the delay itself speaks to Iran's shifting censorship landscape.
The 'fifth horseman' title quietly replaces Pestilence with Addiction, revealing the film's anxious thesis about post-revolutionary Iran.
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