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Baran

Cast: Hossein Abedini (Lateef), Zahara Bahrami (Baran), Mohammad Amir Naji (Memar)

Release date: March 2002

Majidi ventures into relatively new territory with this ‘love-story’ (if you can call it that) set in the world of the illegal Afghan immigrants in Iran. A short note at the beginning of the movie informs us of the vast numbers of Afghans who fled the tyranny of the Taliban regime and before that the Russians, to seek refuge in Iran. Most of them work as construction workers for daily wages on one site, till they are caught. Then they simply move on to a different site. They don’t have i.d. cards, which renders them ineligible to even shop in any store.

Lateef is a young boy working at one of these construction sites. He does the shopping and cooks for the workers. He is always shirking work and making a sloppy job of whatever he does. He keeps on pestering the supervisor Memar for money. Memar is keeping Lateef’s salaries for safekeeping, as he doesn’t trust him with it. Memar is a fair man. He ensures that there is no discrimination against the Afghan workers in terms of wages. He protects them when the inspector comes to check if any Afghans are employed at the site.

One day a worker, Najaf, falls from the second floor and breaks his leg. Next day a neighbor arrives with a shy, reticent boy, Najaf’s ‘son’, Rahmat. Memar agrees to provide work for him. But Rahmat turns out to be too weak for the heavy construction work. So, Lateef is shifted to the construction, while his job of cleaning and cooking is given to Rahmat. Angry at losing the easy job to Rahmat, Lateef makes it a point to create trouble for him.

But he discovers a secret…that Rahmat is girl, whose real name is Baran. At first he regrets his actions and tries to set things right by helping her to protect her identity. He slowly finds himself falling for her restrained beauty but he cannot gather up the courage to talk to her. Also, societal restrictions would not permit a guy and a girl to fall in love or even to meet or talk in public.

Soon after, an unfortunate incident forces Memar to let go of all his Afghan workers. And Baran stops coming to work. Lateef uses the excuse of a sick sister to take leave for a couple of days and go find Baran in the Afghan refugee camp.

Lateef probably knows that the chances of his love being requited are practically nil. But still he decides to go ahead and follow his heart’s calling. And we see him maturing before our eyes into a responsible, caring man from an immature loafer.

The lives of these Iranians and Afghans might appear very different at first sight. But then some things remain the same. People feeling the persecution and poverty in their homeland and ending up living miserable lives as unwelcome guests in an foreign land.

Baran doesn’t speak a single word throughout the movie. But her lovely, expressive eyes and quivering lips say more than any words ever could. The camera captures her grace along with the beauty latent in the harsh urban landscapes.

And Majidi once again successfully concocts a fable-like tale, rooted in bleak reality.