The Sergeant
(Goruhban)

The sergeant returns home after eight years, long after everybody had given up all hop of ever seeing him alive again. Golbkht the Sergeant’s Russian-born wife, and his son, Bahman, work at a car service station run by the sergeant’s brother, while Golbakht is hoping to return to the Soviet Azerbayejan after the opening up of the borders. A piece of land the sergeant had bought on the basis of an unofficial agreement eight years ago – before he had gone to the war – is now worth ten times the money he had paid for it, and the previous owner is now unwilling to turn over the land to the sergeant at the previously agreed price. The latter seeks the help of a retired officer who had once been head of the gendarmerie station and still doesn’t feel he is retired… Everything reaches an end on the border.