Mehdi Hosseinivand

Ebrahim is twelve. He lives with his mother and five siblings of all ages in a two-roomed shack in the heart of desert, far away from the village. Aside from feeding the children and obtaining a birth certificate for them, the main preoccupation of Ebrahim and his mother is to build a house in the village so they don’t have to walk all the way back and forth all the time…

In a remote Iranian village, 12-year-old Ebrahim (Ebrahim Zarozehi) works harder than some of the adults who tower over him to help his single mom care for his five siblings and to save for their own home. He picks dates, waits on tourists at an eco resort (where his mother also works), tends horses at a local ranch and runs errands for anyone willing to pay. While the lure of Tehran seduces some of his friends away, Ebrahim, for all the daily hardships and demands, seems content to stick close to home. Through Ebrahim’s eyes, wise beyond their years, writer-director Mehdi Hoseinivand explores the rhythms and relationships of small town life in largely realist terms but at the film’s center is always a warm, caring story of Ebrahim and his family as they quietly, determinedly make their way in the world.

Ebrahim is twelve. He lives with his mother and five siblings of all ages in a two-roomed shack in the heart of desert, far away from the village. Aside from feeding the children and obtaining a birth certificate for them, the main preoccupation of Ebrahim and his mother is to build a house in the village so they don’t have to walk all the way back and forth all the time…

Ebrahim is twelve. He lives with his mother and five siblings of all ages in a two-roomed shack in the heart of desert, far away from the village. Aside from feeding the children and obtaining a birth certificate for them, the main preoccupation of Ebrahim and his mother is to build a house in the village so they don’t have to walk all the way back and forth all the time…

In a remote Iranian village, 12-year-old Ebrahim (Ebrahim Zarozehi) works harder than some of the adults who tower over him to help his single mom care for his five siblings and to save for their own home. He picks dates, waits on tourists at an eco resort (where his mother also works), tends horses at a local ranch and runs errands for anyone willing to pay. While the lure of Tehran seduces some of his friends away, Ebrahim, for all the daily hardships and demands, seems content to stick close to home. Through Ebrahim’s eyes, wise beyond their years, writer-director Mehdi Hoseinivand explores the rhythms and relationships of small town life in largely realist terms but at the film’s center is always a warm, caring story of Ebrahim and his family as they quietly, determinedly make their way in the world.