Arquivo / 49ª mostra

In a natural way, the film tells the story of Khamro, a lout who goes back to his village in Tajikistan after ten years spent in a Moscow prison. He finds his mother sick – terminally ill. Other troubles await him: the old mayor, quickly, starts to pressure Khamro to settle former debts, and the inhabitants of the town demand he acknowledge paternity for the illegitimate ten-year-old son he barely knows. The wrath of the neighborhood eventually drives Khamro closer to his mother’s beautiful nurse. The name of the film alludes to a Tajikistan legend where every newborn carries an angel on each shoulder: the angel on the left signals bad actions; the one on the right, good actions. When a person dies, all is weighed on the scales of truth to determine the fate of the soul: whether to heaven or to hell.