Jalili’s first experimental film, Scabies, is a docu-drama about a young orphan Hamed (15) who was arrested for distributing illegal pamphlets and is serving a term at a correctional institution. At first, Hamed finds life hard with the other inmates and delinquents competing for rank, but gradually he comes to terms with his new environment.Tackling the status of young offenders and showing the shortcomings of institutions for their care were an unprecedented theme in Iranian cinema in the mid-80s. Few dared to look inside such institutions. Jalili’s film reveals that the majority of the young offenders are either orphans, illiterate, or petty thieves, with punishments hardly proportional to the ‘crime’ committed. Their education consists of learning to sew or cleaning floors. Some sell their blood for cash; others have to use their muscles for favours. The institution is dirty and prone to contagious diseases. Yet the outside world seems to hold as little promises as this claustrophobic world.The actors, mostly chosen among the prisoners, played as they could, but not without irony. Today the film seems dated, and its weaknesses in editing or acting blatant. But the issue raised by its content remains just as poignant. The bitter tone of Scabies made its screening at the Fajr Film Festival difficult. It was only to be screened in a re-edited form years later in 1989.
