Following the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan, three members of the same family flee to Iran, only to find that, even after decades, they’re still struggling to fit in. This triptych covers decades in the lives of these three survivors.
Obedient teenager Mohamed has little recourse when Iranian police pick him up only to use him for free labor. The narrative then transitions to Leila (Mohamed’s girlfriend), who ten years later is forced to dodge the authorities with her son while dealing with her own family grief. The third installment follows Qasem (Leila’s brother), who hopes to settle legally in Iran with his family. Almost 5 million Afghan refugees live in Iran, and most of them are in the fraught position of being suddenly deported back to a dangerous existence. Filmmakers Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi follow three separate tales that superbly illustrate this little-known plight of a people left almost stateless by decades of conflict.