Earth and ashes (Khakestar-o-khak)

Dastaguir sits on the side of the road, his young grandson, Yassin, at his side. A desolate Afghan landscape stretches out all around him - a dry riverbed, stark mountain ranges in the distance and a long, dusty road. That road leads to a far-off coal mine, Dastaguir's dreaded destination. He is on a journey to see his son, the child's father, who works in the mine. He must tell him that their village has been bombed and his entire family killed. The task weighs heavily on the old man, torn between his own remorse, his unbearable solitude and codes of honour deeply engrained in the Afghan soul. As he struggles with so many conflicting emotions, Dastaguir encounters several strangers along the way: a cranky sentry house guard, a philosophical roadside merchant, a mysterious veiled woman who waits endlessly, and other victims of this nameless war that goes on somewhere off-screen.
A fable of devastating loss, redemption and the perseverance of the human spirit in the face of the atrocities of war.