BEST OF FESTS

DAR SARZAMIN-E BARADAR

2024 / 95 min / color

There are currently five million Afghan refugees living in Iran, a place they call “the land of our brothers.” Co-directors Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi bring three protagonists and three different perspectives into the spotlight, taking a look at their daily life in a foreign land, and it’s nowhere near as pretty as the lofty slogan might make it seem. The film is divided into three parts and takes place between 2001 and 2021. The first protagonist is 15-year-old Mohammad, who is ordered by law enforcement to clean up a flooded basement full of historical archives. He returns to the site to work every day with a group of Afghan refugees, including Leila and her older brother Qasem, whose fate we follow in subsequent sections of the film. Filled with Kafkaesque situations, the Iranian filmmakers’ debut is a tender look at the precarious situation of the refugee, always reliant on other people, regardless of their intentions. In the Land of Brothers is one of the most highly acclaimed debuts of last year, having won the directing award at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival among many other accolades.

• Sundance Film Festival – Directing Award;
• Sundsvall FF – Best Film;
• Saint-Jean-de-Luz IFF – Best Film, Best Actress (Hamideh Jafari)