Ebrahim Saeedi

It's 2004, and the news that Saddam Hussein has died sends shock waves through the Middle East. Shaho is the son of an elderly man of Iranian Kurdish heritage; the old man's health is failing him after suffering a stroke, and he's convinced he doesn't have long to live. Shaho, his father, and their family have been living in an Iraqi refugee camp for a while, but with the passing of Saddam, Shaho believes the time is right for them to return to Iran, where father can spend his last days in the land of his birth. However, as Shaho is making plans for the trip back to Iran, his cousin Sheelan visits the family for the first time in twenty years; her parents fled to Sweden when she was a child, where she's now a physician, and she wants her dying uncle to join her there where he'll be safe and well cared for.

A road movie set in Iraq in 2003 during the fall of Saddam. Two Kurds are looking for the parents of a five-year-old boy who has been found in the street in tears. His name is Saddam too. At the same time the boy's parents are looking for him everywhere, worried because of the boy's name which is now taboo. All the attempts of the two Kurds to get rid of the child fail: neither the Americans nor the men of religion at the mosque want him. Little Saddam begins to become a real problem. In the streets and all around them, they are surrounded by the chaos and crazy atmosphere of those days, with violence always on the verge of exploding.

Rojin is a young Kurdish woman about to take the university entrance exam. Rojin's unhappily married older sister Shilan decides to help her pass at any cost, hoping to give her a more emancipated life. Thus, the sisters inevitably become entangled in a huge network of corruption that connects all parts of society.

Shahi received the award for the portrayal of Rohan, a 35-year-old woman who agrees to marry Mahi, an old man who had been the village teacher for many years. Mahi is now the caretaker of the village shrine in whose healing power he does not believe. Rohan begins her new life in a small room in the shrine. She meets a young boy who has taken refuge in the sanctuary of the shrine to be healed. When the boy dies suddenly, Rohan loses all her beliefs like her husband. The fanatic villagers do not tolerate the presence of two heathens in the shrine and the village anymore.

Reza is a freelance journalist who accidentally finds clues from Hiwa, an Iraqi soldier who saved Reza years ago in the harsh conditions of war. He leaves for Iraq to answer the issues he has been hiding from those around him for years.

To escape to the European paradise, the only way is a tunnel that is hidden. A 70 years old Christian man (Uncle Zuheir) lives among the Muslims, his wife and his daughter were victims of violence, he lives next to the tunnel so that he can help people and save their lives.

Young mother Lori must say goodbye to her husband, who decides to join the war against ISIS. She finds herself in a fight in midst her own society. Thus, Lori searches to express her feelings in dance.

After submitting his application to resign, a judge, Ata, seeks shelter in his family villa out of town. When his son, Farhad, a university student, is released from the prison, Ata experiences a cold reunion with the family while his wife, Giti, is filing for divorce. But a car accident, leading to the death of Farhad, and the paralysis of Giti, puts him in a game of concealing the truth from Giti and Vida, Farhad’s girlfriend – just as it has been constantly concealed since the time of the loss of another family member under the heavy steps of history in a country shaken by the public movements from time to time…