Arquivo / 49th mostra

After surviving the brutal massacre of her family in a Taliban raid on a rural Afghan village, Leyla is left with nothing but the desperate hope of finding her missing son, Omid. In a world where her existence as a woman is a danger itself, she does the unthinkable. Disguising herself in her husband’s clothes, pressing his freshly cut beard to her own skin, Leyla becomes someone who is allowed to move through a world that would otherwise consume her. Cloaked in borrowed masculinity, she sets out on a perilous journey across an unforgiving land, chasing faint hope. Along the way, in one of the journey’s bleakest moments, she encounters a boy whose silent presence tests the limits of her endurance and her heart in a place where young boys serve dressed as women. With the shadows closing in and time running out, Leyla must face a harrowing decision: to continue her dangerous search for Omid, or answer a new and unexpected call to protect the innocent.

The film received an honorable mention of the ecumenical jury at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.