The Euphrates is the brothers’ destination as they flee a missile explosion, and the river becomes their immediate refuge. In the scene, an ancient source of fertility and sustenance is also the place where they seek safety, are struck down by the force of the blast, and emerge together from the water.

Setting and Meaning

The river is described as having provided fertility and sustenance to the brothers’ ancestors for centuries. That inherited significance gives their desperate flight a longer historical resonance: as they run through waist-high rushes, the Euphrates is both a concrete destination and a source of life associated with generations before them.

The Flight to the River

The brothers run toward the river with their eyes fixed ahead, thinking of safety and the future. Their progress is rendered through bodily effort—their laboured breathing and the swish of their limbs through the rushes—while the ruins behind them begin to rise into the air and are themselves destroyed. The blast catches up with them, lifting and hurling them forward until they crash into the water.

Refuge and Aftermath

In the Euphrates, they feel the cold water sweep over them and let the current carry them. They rise together, coughing and spluttering, and check each other for damage. The river’s immediate significance is therefore practical as well as symbolic: it receives them at the moment of impact and allows the scene to turn from the destructive force pursuing them to their shared survival.