Handlung

The story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.

Mohammad, a boy at Tehran's institute for the blind, waits for his dad to pick him up for summer vacation. While waiting, he realizes a baby bird has fallen from its nest: he chases away a cat, finds the bird, climbs a tree, and puts it back. His father finally comes and takes him to their village where his sisters and granny await. The lad is a loving student of nature and longs for village life with his family, but his father is ashamed of him, wanting to farm the boy out to clear the way for marriage to a woman who knows nothing of this son. Over granny's objections, dad apprentices Mohammad far from home to a blind carpenter. Can anything bring father and son together?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Blind adolescent Mohammad Ramezani attends a boarding school for the blind in Tehran. He is a bright boy with a zest for life. With the school closing down for the summer break, Mohammad returns to his small village where his widowed father, Hashem, his two sisters, Bahareh and Hanieh, and his paternal grandmother live. Mohammad is overjoyed to be at home with his family, its female members who are as equally happy to have Mohammad back for the three month school break. Hashem, on the other hand, feels ill-equipped to deal with Mohammad. Behind Mohammad's back, Hashem treats Mohammad as an embarrassment to the family and if he is a burden. He has not even told his fiancée about Mohammad's existence. He does whatever he can to pass on the responsibility of Mohammad to others, such as the blind carpenter in the neighboring town under who he would like Mohammad to apprentice. This action is much to the chagrin of Mohammad's grandmother, who is not as worried for Mohammad as she is for her own son. She is concerned about the unconditional love which seems to be missing from his heart - love that Mohammad so craves and deserves.—Huggo

Eight-year-old Mohammad stays at an institute for blind children in Tehran. At the end of term, his widowed father Hashem asks Mohammad's teachers to keep the boy over the holidays. They refuse and Hashem reluctantly takes Mohammad back to their village in northern Iran. There, the boy is reunited with his grandmother and his young sisters Hanyeh and Bahareh.

Hashem starts courting a young woman; her family agrees a marriage date and Hashem works hard to pay for the gifts. Hashem takes Mohammad away to be apprenticed to a carpenter. Mohammad's grandmother argues with Hashem over his selfishness; when she dies, Hashem's prospective in-laws cancel the wedding, believing he brings bad luck. Hashem collects Mohammad from the carpenter's and takes him home through a wood. A bridge collapses under them and Mohammad is carried down river through rapids. Swimming after him, Hashem wakes on a shore and is grief-stricken on finding Mohammad apparently dead, but the boy's hand responds to a ray of sunlight [http://www.bfi.org.uk]