A quietly effective, simply told parable of resistance to the heartlessness of the state, Chapour Haghighat's The Firm Land celebrates traditional community values even as it records their decline. In a remote village by the Indian Ocean, struck by a deadly disease, a man comes from the sea, seeking the firm land... While death is lurking, the villagers decide to turn to the government for help. But as they feel unable to present their demand by themselves, some men are sent to the capital, with the mission of hiring mediators, “learned men” who could plead their cause with the administration. Lost in the big city, the countrymen cannot find any help and get into trouble... They are rescued by some street-boys who introduce them to a disillusioned former professor. The professor pushes the villagers to go and besiege the ministry themselves until they get heard... But they are turned down roughly by the administration. An old lady, a ruined and melancholy aristocrat, organizes a great feast for them... They sing, dance, talk about happiness and life... This story is a fable about the passing of time, the hopes of men, haunted by loneliness and death.