Despite the threat of mines, assassination, and death by dehydration and starvation, determined Shiite Muslims – as many as 3,000 a day – have been pouring across the Iran-Iraq border since the fall of the Iraqi government. They risk their lives for only one reason: to visit the holy city of Karbala, fifty miles south of Baghdad.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER:

Director Bahman Kiarostami was born in Tehran in 1978 and started his work as an assistant director in 1996. His films include The Anonymous (2007), Re-enactment (2006), Pilgrimage (2005), and Infidels (2004). They have been shown internationally on television and in film festivals and focus on the political power of faith inside contemporary Iranian culture, eloquently exploring the complex layers of religious belief in Iranian society.  His latest film is Statues of Tehran (2008).