‘In the Land of Brothers’ (2024) Sundance Review: A Trilogy of Displacement
Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi’s In the Land of Brothers presents the story of three members of an extended Afghan family living as refugees in Iran. The story is divided into three chapters that span 20 years of the hardships Afghan refugees have to face in their new home. The film begins with a message: Iran hosts one of the largest Afghan populations — five million Afghan refugees — which also includes over a million undocumented refugees. Although they are displaced, Iran considers them as ‘the land of their brothers,’ there is a lot more to it than meets the eye.
The first chapter is set in the Iranian city of Bojnold in 2001. Mohammad (Mohammad Hosseini), a 15-year-old student, gets picked up by the Iranian police. He doesn’t have his identification card, so the two police officers demand that he come to the police station with them. They ask Mohammad to follow them to the basement, where he meets other refugees chosen for unpaid labour. The police officers give them the job to clean up the flooded basement filled with archival folders. In three days, Mohammad’s situation gets worse. He has fallen into the predatory eyes of one of the police officers, Asgari (Hajeer Moradi), and he has no idea how to get out of it.
Ten years later, Leila (Hamideh Jafari) and her husband, Hussein, work for a wealthy Iranian couple (Mehran Vosoughi and Marjan Etefaghian). They live in a second house inside the same residence with their son. When she returns home, she finds that her husband is dead. To make matters worse, the couple arrives at their residence with their friends to celebrate New Year’s Eve. They ask him about Hussein, but Leila hides Hussein’s death from them. She will do everything to protect her son and keep her job.
In the final chapter, set in 2021, Leila’s brother, Qasem (Bashir Nikzad), is waiting to meet an agent at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is informed that his son, who he thought was in Turkey for six months, has died in Syria after joining the brotherhood. Qasem realises that he has to break the news to his wife, Hanieh (Marjan Khaleghi). Hanieh and Qasem have been refugees in Iran for over 40 years. The news of his son’s death comes at the same time as Iran is bestowing citizenship to Afghan refugees who have lived in the country for more than 40 years. Qasem and his family have been selected as part of that process. As the day gets closer to attending the rehearsal, Qasem’s secret looms in the air.
In the Land of Brothers is a survival story. Each character deals with the endless cycle of hardship and trauma living in a country unfamiliar to them. There is the threat of deportation that lingers in their fears, as Mohammad and Leila deal with in their chapters. Iranian director/writer duo Amirfazli and Ghasemi put Afghan refugees at the centre of their movie to shine a light on their vulnerability and the treatment they receive in Iran.
One of the best chapters of the trilogy is Qasem’s story. He cannot bring himself to tell the truth about his son’s death. The longer he keeps stalling it, the guilt worsens. The way Amirfazli and Ghasemi unravel the story in this chapter creates a saddening blow that will shock the audience. It’s the realisation that Afghan refugees are denied to live as equal citizens until a family sacrifices themselves for a country that has never accepted them as equal. Only their sacrifice will allow the surviving members to receive citizenship, while the dead will have no history.
Amirfazli and Ghasemi highlight the stories of displaced refugees who adjust to the realities of a new culture. The film title has an ironic message that despite hosting Afghan refugees and viewing them as ‘brothers,’ they are not treated as equals. Mohammad, Leila and Qasem’s stories are a trilogy of tragedy, exploitation, and displacement that captures the visible scars of personal and political trauma. In the Land of Brothers is a heartbreaking movie that brings awareness to the harsh treatment of Afghan refugees in Iran.
Here are some reading materials to learn about the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine and the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement:
Books about Palestine on Verso Books
Books about Palestine on Haymarket Books
