That distance is shattered when one Friday afternoon, as the community pray in the Mosque,  an angry mob heads to Aben’s shop, the only one open. Terrified, and with some relief, they run towards a vulnerable and exposed Tariq .  As Aben watches through his blinds, the mob attacks Tariq swiftly, ruthlessly. Their eyes meet.

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In Aben’s flat, he gently attempts to dab Tariq’s wounds, their first intimate encounter. For the first time, he speaks to Aben – telling him of his wife, child and family he must support in Pakistan. Aben listens. Riddled by guilt, by desire, by the need to heal, he reaches out to Aben. They touch and finally, they surrender to each other. As the night ensues, and love making builds to its crescendo, Tariq re-enacts the act of violence, sexually, that Aben failed to deliver him from. And Aben is transposed back to the sugar cane fields, the tumbling of bodies, of laughter and joy of falling in love with his best friend, Cane – touching, caressing, and the consequences of that joy – Cane’s suicide in those same fields.

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The night is one of catharsis, but as daylight breaks, and Aben wakes to an empty bed, the call to prayer highlights the beginning of a new day, a day like all the rest, or perhaps, not quite.