AMONG THE CLOUDS

Iran, 2008, 82 minutes, Colour.

1.An Iranian drama, contemporary, Iraq and its history with Iran?

2.A border story, the carts, the guards, the people coming across, honesty and dishonesty, smuggling?

3.The terrain, the border, the desert, the gates, the town and the hospital, the train ride, the city and the hotel, the shrine? The musical score?

4.The introduction to the boy, the room and the beds, the flashback, the journey during the credits to the border, his mates, the banter, the work, carrying goods, the visitors, letter-writing and love letters?

5.The intensity of the boy, his watching, the woman and the old man, his bringing things back for them, discovering they had gone, the hospital, the arguments about the corpse, the taxi, carrying the body, her money in the bag, his paying his fare, the car, the taxi driver, the breakdown (and the fraud)? Going back to get the cart, carrying the corpse, getting to the border? The phone number, the mobile phone?

6.The woman and her story, covered, coming into Iran, the story of the body, the argument about the money, being stranded with the coffin, the old man, the boy coming with the cart, their walking to the border, her return to Iraq and covering up?

7.His waiting, the long time, the people coming through the border, the wealthy man, the covered woman, the child, getting past the guards, the boy letting them through, especially the little girl, his being questioned later about recognising them? His denial?

8.The men at the border, their camaraderie, jokes, the man at the store, translating from Arabic? The young man and the letter? Reading the letter?

9.His train ride, coming to the town, the hotel room, watching, meeting the woman, seeing her with the child, her silence, her coming to the room, the discussion, the truth about the smuggling, their marriages of convenience, his upset?

10.The end, insight into characters, situations, their future?