Although traveling is hard, waiting for the next leg of the journey to start is equally as taxing. Hours and even days of frustration pass as they helplessly linger in a new town, jumping at sounds that might be the authorities coming to send them back. The pressure increases as funds shrink, paying for unaccounted meals and hotel rooms on this layover none of their travel agents mentioned.
Unexpectedly, there's a knock. Quick! Grab your bag. Run to the pick-up point. Hurry! Get in. Call this phone number. No time for questions. Good luck. All the while never knowing if you're being steered in the right direction, if your payoff made it to the next man in the chain, if the phone number will work.
There's a great sequence where the boys are on a bus headed to Tehran. An Iranian officer gets on the bus and immediately recognizes them as Afghans. It was an odd moment because being an American and having limited contact with different types of Arabs in no way could I have picked out Afghanis from the Iranians on the bus, but the officer knew immediately. After bribing him with a watch, they are escorted by tank to the Pakistani border. Since London was their only option, Enayatullah and Jamal find the man responsible for getting them into Iran to start the process over. Unfortunately, they have to repay because now they won't catch up to their money. There's no guarantee that those originally paid off will still be doing the job by the time they arrive.
The documentary feel of the film is best illustrated at the first attempt to get into Turkey. One night, a young boy of about eight takes Enayatullah and Jamal to the Iran-Turkey border. They have to hide because the border patrol is shooting at others trying to get into Turkey. There's no light at all except the occasional headlight from the guards' vehicles. The camera does the best it can to record the visuals but the constant movement and the strain on the camera's technical abilities produce streaks of blacks and whites across the screen. We only hear people running, guards shouting and guns firing. It creates suspense and does a great job of capturing the essence of the moment.
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