Despite the threat of mines, assassination, and death by dehydration and starvation, determined Shiite Muslims--as many as 3,000 a day--have been pouring across the Iran-Iraq border since the fall of the Iraqi government. They risk their lives for only one reason: to visit the holy city of Karbala, fifty miles south of Bagdad. This city houses the magnificent shrine of seventh-century leader Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohamed. Hussein died in a battle in 681, a martyr to the Shiite faith. The intense devotion of these pilgrims to Imam Hussein and Karbala astounds outside observers at the same time that it puts the Iranian government in a major predicament. Torn between bureaucracy and allegiance to Islam, Tehran is continually revising its emigration policies, periodically opening and then closing its border. Meanwhile people are dying, and chaos reigns at crossing points.

Director Bahman Kiarostami stationed a camera in the border city of Mehran, the main crossing for the pilgrimage, to record this extraordinary phenomenon of faith. Before the fall of Iraq, Mehran was a small, sleepy town. Now it is filled with people trying to get permits, standing in massive lines awaiting trial for illegal crossings. Pilgrimage captures the amazing scenes in and around the Mehran courthouse and follows individuals both coming and going as they tell of their struggles with border officials, with the elements, with starvation and thirst. There are also interviews with government officials who must discourage border crossings, at the same time that their own belief system--and that of the Shiite government of this religious state--must at least tacitly support the actions of the pilgrims

In this highly detailed, beautifully filmed documentary, the camera does not take sides. Viewers see many facets of this issue and experience a range of emotions while learning about this historic event and about Iranian culture and politics.