Homayoun Ershadi

A tale of one middle-aged man who wishes to die in a society where suicide is considered as an abomination. Driving in the hills above Tehran, he meets an assortment of different characters : Afghans, Kurds, Turks, prisoners of the desert, a soldier, a seminary student and a museum employee, each with reasons to turn down the job : fear, religious scruples and humanist revulsion at a life wilfully squandered.

Two young boys in Afghanistan are inseparable until one day their relationship is torn apart, and years later one of them returns to try to redeem himself.

The film opens in a dark and drab contemporary setting but comes alive with light and color when Mahmoud remembers his childhood from the late 1940s, a time of respite for Iran before the political crises of the 1950s.

In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amir and Hassan, are about to be torn apart forever. It's a glorious afternoon in Kabul and the skies are bursting with the exhilarating joy of a kite-fighting tournament. But in the aftermath of the day's victory, one boy's fearful act of betrayal will mark their lives forever and set in motion an epic quest for redemption. Now, after twenty years of living in America, Amir returns...