PARADISE IS SOMEWHERE ELSE

Iran, 2002, 80 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Abdul Rassul Golbon.

Paradise is Somewhere Else is a debut feature set in rural Iran near the Afghan border. The film focuses on a young man who tends sheep. However, he is saving money to migrate to the Emirates. His father is a technician and engineer in a local factory. He feels the pull of getting away from the rural surroundings and is able to get an Afghan refugee to take his place with the sheep. His parents allow him to leave, his father even offering him money. His mother is resigned. The grandfather also lives with them. Just before he is about to leave, his father is killed in an accident at the plant. Local custom talks about revenge. The young man gets a rifle and takes the opportunity to shoot at the chief engineer, whom he wounds. There are interrogations, the police come after him. The young Afghan hides the rifle and he is arrested in the young man's place but refuses to reveal where he is hiding.

The young man has become a friend of the Afghan who tells him the story of his family, and has tape recordings from the family in Afghanistan, with the possibility of his sister crossing the border into Iran.

The Afghan is taken into prison, interrogated, promised that he will be set free but is taken into the city. The young man goes to the border, encounters a big number of Afghan refugees crossing through the desert into Iran. He meets his friend's sister. He hesitates at the border, not knowing which way to go, deciding to return to Iran but the utility has already gone into the distance and he is left stranded, where the film ends.

The film highlights the difficulties consequent on the Afghan war, the Afghan refugees in Iran, the hopes of Iranians for a better life in such places as the Emirates - and the consequences on society as well as on the individuals.

1. A film of Iran, but one which travels? Universal issues?

2. The settings, the village, the mountains with the sheep, the plains with the factory? The roads towards Afghanistan? The picturesque desert mountains? The musical score?

3. The title, the young boy's dreams, the Emirates holding all the possibilities? No Paradise in Iran? The irony of the title with the ending?

4. The focus on the boy, on the sheep, looking at the car, looking at the mirror, his ambitions? Saving money? Wanting to work at the factory, his requests? His relationship with his father, with his mother, grandfather? The family's dependence on him? His asking the Afghan refugee to be the shepherd? Their friendship, shared experiences, the pool? His plans to migrate, the payment, the agent? His father and his being killed? The revenge, the rifle, aiming at the engineer, shooting him? Having to hide in the cave? The Afghan burying the rifle? His eluding capture? His reaction to his friend being arrested? His farewell to his mother? Going on the journey? Seeing the Afghan's sister, remembering the photo and the stories? His decision to leave, the hesitation, looking back, the truck gone, his being stranded in the mountains? His future?

5. The family, the father as an engineer, building up security for the family, the family lifestyle? The mother and her domestic work? The grandfather and his place in the family in retirement? The death and its repercussions? The effect of the boy leaving? His mother helping him with food? The farewell?

6. The Afghan refugees, the crippled boy, his experience in the war, his sister, the tapes, photos, his mother? Getting money to bring the family to Iran? His taking the job, with the sheep, with the boy, their friendship? The rifle, his arrest, in the cell, the interrogations? His being taken to the city? His future? His sister, at the border, going into Iran? Her future?

7. The industrial plant, the workers? The engineer and his role? Giving the boy a job? The work of the father? The accident, the engineer and the interrogations, his being shot? Not dead?

8. The contrast between the rural way of life, life in the village, the industrial plant and its repercussions? The dreams of a better life in the Emirates?

9. Topical issues of change in society, change in family structures, dreams of a better life, migration and refugees?