An elderly man sets out to reach his son with his grandson. The great wind of dust filling the screen seems to stifle the viewers. In the mountains of northern Afghanistan, Dastaguir and his grandson Yassin start their journey to reach Murad, the son, who works in a mine. He has to tell his son of the deaths of most of his family due to a bombing and of the suicide of his daughter-in-law due to the shock from being raped. However, when he finds out why his son has stopped visiting the family, he turns around without even seeing him. The film depicts total despair. Dastaguir loses his one last hope and Yassin loses his hearing. Director Atiq Rahimi uses all the tools in the film such as the audio and the visual to convey one consistent message: despair. Images of Dastaguir′s deep wrinkles in his forehead and the mine in the mountain covered with dust coupled with dry sounds all describe the old man′s utter despair. When Yassin finds out towards the end of the film that it is not the others who lost their voice but himself who lost his hearing, the viewers feel twice the despair. When they leave the cinema feeling like they have just inhaled a bunch of dust, the viewers will be bound to think of the tragic Afghanistan situation once more. (Kim Ji-seok)