Endless Borders (2023)

Endless Borders (2023). 1h 51m

“The story begins in the Baluchistan region where Baluch tribal people live around the borders of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. The period of the film ,Taliban militant group is advancing to take over Afghanistan completely. In the opening scene of the film, a group of people has been waiting for two or three days, family by family huge spread outside of their country border in overspread of ash dust to cross the border illegally. After a long wait, few vehicles come to pick them up, and in the huge crowd, some of them are pushed to manage inside and leaving the others there. Rest of the crowd is running behind in frustration.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn this scene, director Abbas Amini beautifully portrayed the pain of the refugees that cannot be expressed in words. It is very obvious the life of the people who are living nearby borders in dire calamity and with constant fear. They never get a quality of life then the people living in centre part of the country., Despite of any horrible geo politics issue, their day to day life such as relationships, happiness and passion every aspect of their lifestyle spread across the same soil and race. Seeking asylum to neighbourhood country is comes out of the compulsion due to various geo politics and economic catastrophes , but on reality they are driven away, exploited , oppressed and they must bear the pains of unstable life.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is very awful that Human values are abused against asylum seekers everywhere in the world.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn this film opening block, an elderly man on his deathbed from one of the refugee family,nThere is a doctor among the refugees who is fearing of Taliban, struggling to escape and cross the country, voluntarily offer his service to rescue the old man. But he fears of Taliban if they knew that he is a gynecologist, they could kill him because it is a crime to touch women and practice medicine.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAhmed join hands with the Doctor to save this elder man , he is an exiled Iranian who serves as a single teacher teaching Baloch children.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAhmed and his wife are both school teachers, both accused of plotting against the Iranian government, Ahmedu0026#39;s wife Nilofar is jailed, Ahmed is exiled from Iran. The past story of Ahmed is explained well over the phone chatting between Ahmed and his wife, that metaphors the oppression of Iranian Government against free speech. During the exilic he must appear the Iran embassy before attending school.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe death bed old man gets basic medical treatment with the help of doctor and school teacher Ahmed so the family of the old man is offered a shelter in Hazaras leaderu0026#39;s house in the village. Balaj 18 years old youngster (Balaj (Hamed Alipour) of Hazaras leaders offers a warm hospitality and takes care all needs of the guests. But Ahmed notice that Balaj getting intimate with a 16-year-old from the family of guest. Balaj and the young girl Hasiba fall in love, and one day when no one is around, they both want to escape, and the two ethnic groups get angry and clash. Young girl Hasiba is married off to an old man for a debt owed by her father.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut Hasiba unable to escape outside and sheltered by the teacher Ahmed. Balaj tells his father the details and tries to appease him. But teacher Ahmed is directly accused and locked up. Ahmed fears that if she is caught they could lynch her due to the illegal affair with other ethnic group boy. To escape her , Ahmed calls Taliban and give a news that some illegal migrants sheltered in Hazaras village , Taliban rushes to the village , during these turmoil situation teacher Ahmad takes advantage and flees to Iran with Hasifa and Balaj, where he meets his beloved wife.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNilofar, Ahmedu0026#39;s wife, who wants to help the coupleu0026#39;s new life, but her anger towards her husband who left her in jail , The actress Mino Sharifi has beautified the screenplay with her emotional performance..nPouria Rahimi Sam touches the height of the performance as a husband who faces that heavy moment of emotion when she slaps him and expresses her anger and anxiety at their first sight.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSaman Lotfian brings the film to life with exquisite cinematography of the geopolitics of neighborhood countries which elevate this film to international standards.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHasifa, Balaj, Ahmed and Nilofar, these four cross the border from Iran and prepare to start a new life in Turkey. But Hasifa is conflicted and runs off crying, Nilofar tries to pacify her. Nilofer start hitting the corn toy that is kept outside the field to keep the sparrows away.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThen Hasifa would take a stick and Balaj would take a stick and beat them till their anger and anxiety subsided. The corn toy is symbolizing as a u0026quot;superpoweru0026quot; squashing away marginalized people from different ethnic and different cultural backgrounds, as the four together cross the lake and enter the Turkish border, where the sound of gunshots is heard.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePeople scream and run over the barbed wire fences, Ahmed who was ahead looks back, his wife Nilofar is missing, Balaj and Hasifa cross the barbed wire fence. Ahmed frantically searches his wife in the mid of threat , Ahmed keep shouts Balaj and Hasifa to run away.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow Ahmed doesnu0026#39;t enter in to a new country, he goes back the way he came..he meets his love wife in the middle of the lake, he doesnu0026#39;t want to leave her this time..he wants to stay together for life or death.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAre they going back into Iran? Or to Turkey. The film ends here without any conclusion..u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe music Composer Atena Eshtiaghi emotionally touched the sentiments of Balochi who renounced their elements of identity by the exquisite height of background score.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHayedeh Safiyari, an Iranian film editor gives her best effort to make this film fantabulousnAbbas Amini and Hossein Farokhzad who beautifully scripted every scene and dialogue like the cultural differences, border issues and political conflicts between them are definitely worthy of praise. Endless Borders is a film worthy of all the awards in the world.”