AllMovie

Follow Kandahar star Nelofer Pazira as she travels back to her native country in search of the long-lost friend who inspired Mohsen Makhmalbaf's award-winning film. As young girls in the 1980s, Nelofer and her friend Dyana grew up in the same Kabul neighborhood, attending school together and dreaming of the day they would attend college and earn their PhDs. In 1989, Nelofer's family fled Afghanistan, and the two friends remained steady pen pals. Nearly ten years later, Dyana wrote Nelofer a letter admitting that she'd been contemplating suicide after the Taliban took power. Now that women were restricted from working, Dyana would never realize her dream of becoming a doctor. One year after Nelofer made a failed attempt to re-enter Afghanistan and rescue Dyana, she was relieved to receive word that her old friend was still alive. Communication was impossible, however, as Dyana's family had recently relocated to a new city. Now, as Nelofer ventures into Mazar-e-Sharif in search of Dyana, she comes face to face with the painful reality of a land devastated by decades of war, and divided by religious strife.