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For some people, having enough is never enough. It gives them a sense of satisfaction to take something away from those who are barely getting by. In this story, set in the 1970s, a wealthy landowner (Omar Sharif) has persuaded the government to give him land previously held by poor peasants, and he is overjoyed. The landowner's dissolute son is due to be drafted, but the landowner persuades one of the desperately poor people in his region to take his son's place in the army. The second half of the movie follows that poor peasant's experiences until he dies in an armed conflict.