More than 90 percent of the world's opium now comes from Afghanistan. This no-holds-barred documentary follows this illicit industry, from the cultivation of the opium plants, to the processing of heroin, to the cross border smuggling that occurs between Afghanistan and Iran, and catches the ambush of smugglers by Iranian guards in the rocky mountains of Afghanistan.

Filmmakers capture how opium is processed into heroin in the Afghan highlands. By using a car jack, the raw material is pressed, diluted, heated, and pressed again. The unlikely looking mixture is now ready for export.

The film focuses on the Afghan tribal leader who brokers the deal for the four hundred villagers supplying him with opium. They depend on his patronage for their livelihood. Opium is the cash crop; without it their survival is at risk. For these Afghans, it is a no-win situation, because despite the much-needed money this arrangement brings, their own children have begun turning to drugs. Though drug addiction is an affliction that has traditionally remained absent from the Afghani culture, after thirty years of war, it the price of doing business has begun to take its toll.

Middle East Studies Association, 2008