The director of a new feature film that stars Javier Bardem as a man living with FTD shares how her personal connection to the disease inspired the story in an interview with BBC News.

The Roads Not Taken follows a former writer (Bardem), who has FTD, imagining alternative versions of his past as his daughter, played by Elle Fanning, copes with his deteriorating condition. Salma Hayek and Laura Linney add to the film’s star-studded cast.

Director Sally Potter drew inspiration for the story from the life of her younger brother, the musician Nic Potter, who had FTD and died in 2013. In a recent interview with BBC Talking Movies’ Tom Brook, Potter speaks about her late brother’s diagnosis and describes how her perception of his experience influenced the film.

The Roads Not Taken opened in theaters worldwide on March 13, after making its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February. Brook notes the film has struggled to gain traction at the box office in midst of the COVID-19 outbreak: “Sadly the film has fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic,” he says in the report. “The intense media coverage the virus has generated distracted from the movie’s opening in the U.S., and now many of the cinemas that were playing it have been closed down.”

You can watch a trailer for the film here. The New York-based film distribution company Bleecker Street will be offering an online stream of the film starting April 10. Click here for more information.