The H@llow Man

2059, Tunisia. A biochip regulates memory and suppress emotion. Hypnotherapy is forbidden, but Taha secretly consults a hypnotherapist. He is a pathos-smith: through poetry, he forges for others the emotions they can no longer feel. While under hypnosis, Taha crosses a forest and reaches a house without electricity and infestes with bedbugs, surveilled by a taciturn, curious neighbour. Inside, a man and two women are preparing a suicide attack. The woman chosen to carry the bomb is pregnant: their leader has ruled that a fetus under three months has no soul. In the haze of hallocinogenic pills, Taha understands: the fetus is himself. Police storm the house; his mother sets herself alight.

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