Nafas

As children, we are cared for and have fewer worries compared to when we grow older. However, this doesn’t mean that the things that matter to us in childhood are any less significant. Take Scruffy, for instance. Despite coming from a poor rural family, she is determined to excel in her studies because she aspires to become a doctor specializing in asthma. Her motivation is personal—she wants to grow up and find a cure for her father, whom the doctor has said is dying. Equally pressing for her is the need to escape her grandmother, who is constantly lurking in the shadows of their home, ready to tame her unruly hair with a comb. Concepts like death are too abstract for her to grasp, and war is just a term she occasionally hears on the radio when adults tune in. Yet, as Scruffy navigates her days filled with both joy and sorrow, the backdrop of Iran’s most turbulent years unfolds, revealing the Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war through the innocent perspective of a child.