We open on an unknown kid's secretive cell phone video filming of
her mother getting ready for bed, followed by the mistreatment of a pet hamster as a lab rat, and finally video of her mother passed out on the sofa — just prior to an ambulance being called.
Because when you're ten years old and
getting ready for bed, on a night that's just like any other night, no darker or starrier or more silent or more full of smells than usual, with the familiar sound of the muezzins calling the faithful to prayer from the tops of the minarets just like anywhere else... no, when you're ten years old - I say ten, although I'm not entirely sure when I was born, because there's no registry office or anything like that in Ghazni province - like I said, when you're ten years old, and your
mother, before putting you to
bed, takes your head and holds it against her breast
for a long time, longer than usual, and says, There are three things you must never do in life, Enaiat jan,
for any reason... The first is use drugs.