The Sweetest Embrace: Return to Afghanistan

Produced by the National Film Board of Canada in co-production with Oxus Apertura Films Inc. in association with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. ;North West Centre.

Writer/director, Najeeb Mirza ; producer, Bonnie Thompson, Adam Symansky, Najeeb Mirza ; editor, Joey Calugay ; camera, Jimmy Bustos, Najeeb Mirza ; sound, Jimmy Bustos, Najeeb Mirza ; sound editing, Leopoldo Gutierrez ; composer, Farangis Nurulla ; narration, Najeeb Mirza ; archival research, Elizabeth Klinck, Nailya Okda ; foley, Lise Wedlock ; re-recording, Shelley Craig ; participant, Amirdad Alamunbek, Soorgul Roy Sakai.

Soorgul and Amir were two of many Afghan children sent to Tajikistan during the Soviet occupation of their country. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the civil wars that broke out on both sides of the border left the children stranded. They were meant to be in Tajikistan only temporarily, to attend school. Instead, they became stranded there, unable to leave the country until Canada accepted them as refugees. It took 16 years before they could return home. In The Sweetest Embrace Soorgul and Amir return to their country in search of their families. They travel in NGO vehicles (until it becomes too dangerous), then local vans - and finally, when rock-strewn roads become completely impassable, finish their journey on foot through some of Afghanistan's highest mountains. But when their paths diverge, their futures become filled with unexpected and unpredictable turns as they seek to find resolution in their lives. The Sweetest Embrace tells an intimate story set against one of the world's most harsh and yet beautiful landscapes, in a land where life has been shaped by war and hardship but where spirit remains resilient.

8-12.

Régie du cinéma du Québec rating: G.

CHV rating: G.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.