Baradar (Brother)

Synopsis

When they are forced to separate, 10-year-old Ali and his 18-year-old brother Mohammed have already been travelling for a long time.
Three years earlier, a bomb destroyed their home in Kabul and killed their parents. Suddenly alone and homeless, Alì and Mohammed crossed Afghanistan hidden on the roof of a van; spent nearly two years trapped in Iran as illegal migrants, and finally, without ever losing hope for a brighter future and faith in human kindness, made their way to Turkey, at the gates of Europe.
Only a stretch of sea separates them from Greece, but the only way to get there is in a rubber dinghy, and Mohammed doesn’t want his little brother to attempt the risky crossing. His plan is to get to Greece alone, and make enough money in a short time to pay a smuggler who would bring Alì across, so that they can reunite. What started as a vague plan, gradually takes shape and Alì is forced to consider all the inevitable implications. Sure, his brother’s journey is their only hope for a new life in Europe, but he is only ten years old. How can he survive all alone in a vast city like Istanbul where he has no friends and nobody to rely on?
The short film opens on the two brothers, carrying a raft around the narrow streets of Instanbul. We might think they are just two brothers going towards the sea to have fun, but we soon realize the truth. Mohammed has made up his mind: he’s going to cross the sea in a couple of days on that tiny raft, and he has little time to teach Alì everything he deems necessary for survival: how to cook, how to hide his money, how to respect others, how not to be noticed, how to get by without getting sick.
Yet, there is one thing – perhaps the most important of all – that Mohammed doesn’t have the courage to tell his brother: what to do in case he never makes it to the other side…