Sfinx Film/TV

Please install Flash and turn on Javascript.

Behind the mountains PDF Print E-mail
Reyhane and Farzane are two six-year-old girls. They are cousins and best friends. They live in an Afghan refugee camp in Eastern Iran, near the border to Afghanistan. Through the barbed wire fence, which surrounds the camp, they can see the huge mountains, which make up a natural frontier between the two countries. In the documentary Behind the Mountains we follow the two girls in the summer up to their first day of school. Starting school is a big change: uniforms, headscarves and great expectations. An epoch-making event in every child’s life, regardless in which country you grow up: Denmark, Afghanistan or “Refugee Camp Land”. The mixture of the known and the unknown, and the specific versus the universal is the pivotal point of the film. When the girls make their own kites out of plastic bags, balance over open gutters, climb barbed wire fences they have never crossed, roll with bicycle tires, kiss the Koran or crack pistachios to earn money for school supplies, will some children feel the difference. But when they fool around or share the excitement on their way to the first day of school, all the differences vanish. Behind the Mountains is a life affirming documentary.

Directed by: Annette Mari Olsen & Katia Forbert Petersen.
Broadcasted: DR1.
Duration 48 min.
Distribution: The Danish Film Institute, Sfinx Film/TV ApS, Danish libraries
Watch the film for free at
wwwf ilmstriben.dk (in Denmark)