WHEN THE POMEGRANATES HOWL

VAGHT-E CHIGH-E ANAR

By Granaz MOUSSAVI

IRANIAN INDEPENDENTS - as SALES All rights, World

Second film - Completed 2021

A 9-year-old Hewad peddles food and amulets tackling dangers of daily street life during an ongoing war in Afghanistan. Following an explosion, he is photographed amongst other civilian casualties by an Australian journalist, igniting his daydreams of becoming a Hollywood actor. Hewad auditions a gang of street children for the journalists' camera not knowing that dreams would come true in unexpected ways by war.

    • Year of production
    • 2021
    • Genres
    • Second film, Female director, Drama
    • Countries
    • AUSTRALIA, AFGHANISTAN
    • Languages
    • PASHTU, FARSI, ENGLISH
    • Budget
    • 0.3 - 0.6 M$
    • Duration
    • 83 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Granaz MOUSSAVI
    • Writer(s)
    • Granaz MOUSSAVI
    • Producer(s)
    • Granaz MOUSSAVI, Marzieh VAFAMEHR, Baheer WARDAK, Christine WILLIAMS
    • Synopsis
    • Hewad, a nine-year-old boy, supports his family by selling goods from a cart on the harsh streets of Kabul after the death of his father. At home he is also facing the challenge of the forced marriage of his mother to his uncle. He dreams of escaping his war-torn poverty existence by becoming a rich and famous actor, taking care of his mum himself and buying his family a fancy new house. An Australian photojournalist befriends Hewad and starts documenting his life in order to depict an empathetic image of the children of this war-torn society. Inspired by this, Hewad sets out to enlist his friends to help create an imaginary Hollywood style action film. While he and his friends are playing war games on the streets as an audition for the film, tragedy strikes and Hewad and his best friend are shot and killed by an Australian troops’ airstrike, who mistake the group for Taliban insurgents.