Zia Mohajerjasbi

It's 1997 in Seattle's Yesler Terrace, and 10-year-old Abai is on a quest to find fresh batteries for his Casio keyboard for one last music lesson with his older brother Sam before seeing him sent back to their native Eritrea, indefinitely.

15-year-old Robel embarks on an errand to deliver a suitcase across town, destined for a sick family member in his parents' homeland of Eritrea. He enlists the help of his best friend Fahmi, but an unexpected turn transmutes his simple task into an odyssey across the rapidly gentrifying city of Seattle.

The Charcoal Sky is all about the light of the Pacific Northwest. That is all you need to know. Zia Mohajerjasbi, who is now based in Los Angeles, is a cinematographer whose best work so far begins and ends with the sharply slanted light of Seattle.