Maryam e Jazireye hengam

Maryam and her husband live isolated on Hengam island in southern Iran, over 1000 kilometres from Teheran. She wears a burqa showing only her eyes; her husband wears sunglasses, on which the film’s narrator comments: “Man’s eyesight is poor and woman faces yet a tougher duty since she can see.” Maryam is permanently on the go, cooking, feeding the animals, tending the vegetables and going fishing with her husband. Rhythmed by the cock’s crowing, the days follow on much the same. Three young men arrive and set up a ballot box on their car’s bonnet, the radio broadcasts alarming news about Iraq… Until one day a polite man dressed in plain clothes comes to announce that they must leave the island for a few days, as the army is coming to carry out manoeuvres…