A Few Cubic Meters of Love: The Story of an Iranian Boy's Love for an Afghan Girl

Afghans make up the largest number of migrants in Iran, yet Iranian cinema has not paid much attention to their issues and lives over the years, with few instances where Afghan characters have gone beyond peripheral roles in films. However, this time we are faced with a solid and strong work where the main characters are Afghan residents in Iran: 'A Few Cubic Meters of Love' directed by Jamshid Mahmoudi, which recently had a successful screening at the Dubai Festival. The film's humanistic perspective is very engaging and can intertwine its captivating story about the traditions and problems of the Afghan migrant community with the behavior of the host society, leading to noteworthy conclusions. The film immediately addresses the core issue: an Afghan girl living with her father on the outskirts of a remote workshop near Tehran falls in love with a young Iranian boy working in the same workshop, but discussing this love and making it known brings many problems. Meanwhile, the film discusses the illegal work of Afghans in this workshop and explores their residency issues in the host society—within reasonable limits; not aggressively or sensationally. The head of this workshop, who employs them, remains on the border of being a good/bad person, and the film subtly does not clarify whether he is merely exploiting Afghans for lower wages or is more humanitarian in providing them work and a place to live. He stands against the negative hero of the story who betrays the Afghans and ultimately tries to help unite the two young lovers. However, the film depicts a closed circle from which there is no escape. The closed mise-en-scène and calculated camera movements portray this inhumane workshop as a prison, and the Afghans working there seem like prisoners with no way out. Two scenes where Afghans take refuge inside a large pipe to escape from law enforcement operate with the theme of light and darkness, juxtaposing two different worlds: seeking refuge in darkness and fleeing from light due to life's compulsion. In the second scene, the girl's father decides to come out of this darkness; the camera shows him emerging into the light from inside the pipe and, in a bitter dialogue with the law enforcement officers surrounding them, he states that they will return to Afghanistan. Strangely, the law enforcement officers refrain from arresting them and accept their promise (perhaps to soften the film's theme about Iranian behavior towards Afghans so that the film can be allowed to be made and screened). However, the film later makes escape from this closed circle seem impossible. The Afghans are packing their belongings to return to Afghanistan, but this girl and boy in love do not intend to submit to their not-so-unpleasant fate of separation. Therefore, they have an innocent meeting one last time in an abandoned container located in a corner. In the end, the film does not compromise to please the audience; on the contrary, it concludes its story in the bitterest possible way. The container, with its closed space, turns into a grave of darkness that holds the lovers within it. The atmosphere of the final scene showcases the filmmaker's peak ability: the proper use of sound (the impacts of the outside world on their innocent realm, where we only hear the terrifying sound and their cries for help go unheard) and the gradual darkening of the scene until it reaches complete darkness, making the audience complicit in the unintended grave of the main characters. In the battle of darkness and light, we remain in darkness, but the film presents a dreamlike scene of union and reaches light in the heart of darkness; albeit only to the extent of a sweet dream.