Qodratollah Qadiri

이 이야기는 1989년 아프가니스탄 카불에서 시작된다. 1979년부터 시작되었던 소련과 아프가니스탄 전쟁의 막바지, 아프가니스탄에서 소련이 철수하던 시기가 배경이다. 카불의 한 극장 앞에서 암표를 팔며, 버려진 자동차에 살던 15세 소년 쿠다트는 경찰에 잡혀 고아원으로 가게 된다. 그곳에서 쿠다트는 친구들을 만나 우정을 나누고, 동급생 소녀와 사랑에 빠진다. 물론 고아원에도 서열과 괴롭힘이 있고 패거리들끼리의 반목이 있으며 소련군이 버리고 떠난 탄약들을 모으던 친구는 탄약 폭발로 사망하는 등 소소한 사건사고가 끊이지 않는다. 그럼에도 평화롭던 고아원의 일상은, 소련이 떠난 자리에 등장한 무자헤딘의 공격으로 완전히 무너진다.

In rural Afghanistan, people are storytellers who make up and tell each other tales of mystery and imagination to explain the world in which they live. The shepherd children own the mountains and, although no adults are around, they know the rules; they know that boys and girls are not allowed to be together. The boys practice with their slings to fight wolves. The girls smoke secretly and play at getting married, dreaming of finding a husband soon. They gossip about Sediqa; she’s eleven years old and an outsider. The girls think she is cursed. Qodrat, also eleven years old, becomes the subject of gossip when his mother remarries an old man with two wives. Qodrat roams alone in the most isolated parts of the mountains, where he meets Sediqa and they become friends.

In rural Afghanistan, people are storytellers who make up and tell each other tales of mystery and imagination to explain the world in which they live. The shepherd children own the mountains and, although no adults are around, they know the rules; they know that boys and girls are not allowed to be together. The boys practice with their slings to fight wolves. The girls smoke secretly and play at getting married, dreaming of finding a husband soon. They gossip about Sediqa; she’s eleven years old and an outsider. The girls think she is cursed. Qodrat, also eleven years old, becomes the subject of gossip when his mother remarries an old man with two wives. Qodrat roams alone in the most isolated parts of the mountains, where he meets Sediqa and they become friends.