Among the Clouds by Rouhollah Hejazi

Among the clouds (Dar miane abrha) tells the story of Malek, an Iranian teenager working as a guide and luggage carrier at the Iraqi border, a turbulent area that appears to be quite calm, but soon will turn into the troublesome scenery of a wistful coming of age story. Actually, here the war is only present as a context; the real one takes place between Malek’s feelings of love, trust, and longing.

When a mysterious and beautiful woman named Noura (Elnaz Shakerdoost) needs help crossing the border to Iran with a coffin, Malek falls into that dreamlike state of the film’s title, and the plot thickens. Rouhollah Hejazi’s first feature juggles with the universal themes of love, adulthood, and the loss of innocence, which will also work as the emotional borders which Malek and Noura are constantly crossing towards each other, going back and forth between Iran and Iraq.

The sounds filling up the screen - with an intensity that seems to pour right out of it - form a powerful and overwhelming soundtrack which covers with emotion the gaps the plot might have in terms of originality. The tables turn at the end, with a surprising and unexpected closing scene, in which the score overstresses a very touching and subtle finale.

Agustín Mango