Thrown back into a dusty 1980s and the height of the Iran/Iraq war, the film is a meditation on the cycles of violence and war and their infectious qualities. Clean, architectural sets are washed over by rivers of blood, as historical grievances are played back like excerpts from a documentary.

A free adaptation of the classic William Faulkner novel, AS I LAY DYING follows four siblings - three brothers, accompanying their only sister - as they drive to the south of Iran with their newly-deceased father's body. Their father's will demands that his body be buried in a small, faraway village, a place none of his children have ever heard of.

One night, three bored young men in a car decide to pay a visit to an older man they only know vaguely. At first he’s glad to see them but soon afterwards thinks they’ve come to burgle him and turns a gun on them. When the police turns up, they’re all taken into custody.