In the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, a widowed father expects his only son to follow in his footsteps. Darra Adam Khel is home to the ethnic Pashtuns. The local industry is the handcrafting of firearms. It has been this way since long before the war on terror. Eleven-year-old Niaz Afridi works with his father learning how to make and test weapons just as Sher Alam learnt from his father before him. But Niaz doesn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps. He wants to go to school.

Made under extraordinary, and extremely dangerous, conditions, Jirga tells the emotional story of a former Australian soldier who travels to Afghanistan to seek forgiveness.