« In the land of our brothers »: faint – liberation

After the American interventions in the early 2000s in their country of origin, nearly 5 million Afghans had to find refuge with their Iranian « brothers ». To crunch the life of these immigrants, Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi, a duo who signs his first feature film here, invent in In the country of our brothers A fiction made up of three chapters, spaced ten years old, which tell the story of the same group of Afghan exiles.

Each block is almost like an autonomous short film. Recently arrived on the territory, the young Mohammad is taken in a blackmail to the expulsion by the local police; Leila, an undocumented maid for a wealthy family, camouflages the death of her husband to avoid attracting the authorities; Finally, the Patriarch Qasem learns the death of his son, who left to fight terrorism in Syria on behalf of the regime. From 2001 to 2021, In the country of our brothers thus draws up the invariant observation of discredited individuals. Despite increasing integration – undocumented at the start of the film, Qasem’s family, thanks to the sacrifice of her son, ends up obtaining Iranian nationality in the last segment -, the Afghans group remains confined to the margin of society.

Although the three stories venture into different genres, with accents of social chronicle, thriller or melodrama, they all highlight the impossible (or unequal) coexistence between Iranians and refugees, including the