The Silence Of The Shepherd
Filmfest 2015

Thirteen year old Zahra lives in a village on the edge of the desert in the south of Iraq. She leaves home to fetch some water from the small river nearby. She never comes back. With no trace of Zahra, the collective imagination of the village community creates its own tale of her disappearance; a tale that belongs to the world of the forbidden. The disappearance of Zahra abruptly and dramatically shakes the moral order of the village. The social fabric and traditions of the society come into conflict with themselves, breeding more and greater disappearances effecting everybody’s life.
"In an autocratic society, silence is a main feature of life. It becomes the one sanctuary individuals take refuge in, to evade the evils of tyranny and it's cruel and degrading. Silence's first victim is truth, and when truth is buried, the social being of any society loses its own essence of coherence, that is its own realization of truth."
Raad Mushatat