Baradar

When they are forced to separate, 10-year-old Ali and his 18-year-old brother Mohammed
have already been travelling for a long time.
Three years earlier, a bomb destroyed their home in Kabul and killed their parents.
Suddenly alone and homeless, Alì and Mohammed crossed Afghanistan hidden on the roof of
a van; spent nearly two years trapped in Iran as illegal migrants, and finally, without ever losing
hope for a brighter future and faith in human kindness, made their way to Turkey, at the gates
of Europe.
Only a stretch of sea separates them from Greece, but the only way to get there is in a rubber
dinghy, and Mohammed doesn’t want his little brother to attempt the risky crossing.
His plan is to get to Greece alone, and make enough money in a short time to pay a smuggler
who would bring Alì across, so that they can reunite. What started as a vague plan, gradually
takes shape and Alì is forced to consider all the inevitable implications.
Sure, his brother’s journey is their only hope for a new life in Europe, but he is only ten years
old. How can he survive all alone in a vast city like Istanbul where he has no friends and nobody
to rely on?
The short film opens on the two brothers, carrying a raft around the narrow streets of a turkish
village. We might think they are just two brothers going towards the sea to have fun, but we
soon realize the truth. Mohammed has made up his mind: he’s going to cross the sea in a couple of days on that tiny raft, and he has little time to teach Alì everything he deems necessary
for survival: how to cook, how to hide his money, how to respect others, how not to be noticed,
how to get by without getting sick.
Yet, there is one thing - perhaps the most important of all - that Mohammed doesn’t have the
courage to tell his brother: what to do in case he never makes it to the other side...