Gözde Kural

Turkey-Iran-Bulgaria-Romania, 2025, 124 min

Afghanistan under the brutal rule of the Taliban. After surviving her family’s massacre, Leila has just one goal in life: to find her son Omid. But in a country where being a woman means being less than nothing, her chances are desperately slim, and so she chooses an extreme and dangerous solution. She radically changes her identity and sets out on a path where even the slightest hesitation can mean death. In her masterfully crafted second film, Turkish director Gözde Kural applies her familiarity with Afghan society in order to tell a story of oppression that forces individuals into roles – be it borrowed masculinity or forced femininity – that they would never accept in a free country.