A house of stone, a shadow of sadness

Friends, please note that the last two minutes of our film are a teaser. After days of wandering in the vast and unforgiving desert, where there was no sign of humanity, Zahra and her mother have now reached a point where even pleading is useless. There is no tent on the horizon, no footsteps, no kind hand reaching out to save them. So they set to work themselves. With hands tired and cracked from the scorching heat, they gathered and stacked the scattered stones of the desert. Not to build a wall, not to build a house - just to have a few inches of shade to sit in and escape the deadly rays of the sun. But Zahra can do nothing: she can't tell her mother that these stones are not a house. She can't tell her that this shadow will last until nightfall and that tomorrow the sun will rise again from the heart of the desert with the same ruthlessness. She can't say that the water is gone and there is no way back. She cannot smile and say, “Enough.” She can only sit beside her mother, under a shadow of stone but shaped by sadness, and be silent. Because every word she says may destroy her mother’s last refuge – the same mother who, years ago, had a house in a distant city with a yard full of trees. “House of Stone, Shadow of Sadness” means trying to build in the middle of nowhere. It means being together, but in the middle of a desert that has no end. It means Zahra, who understands everything, but can do nothing – except stay beside her mother and under that shadow, stare at the horizon with wet eyes and wish that these stones would one day become walls, that this shadow would one day become a house, that the desert would one day have mercy on them. --- #Zahra_and_her_mother #Desert_Without_Shelter #Shadow_of_Stone #Sadness_in_the_Heart_of_the_Desert #Today's_Bitter_Story #Stone_House_Shadow_of_Sadness #Life_in_the_Desert #Poverty_and_Loneliness #Mother_and_Daughter_in_the_Desert #No_One_Hears