Baran

Released 2001
Stars Hossein Abedini, Zahra Bahrami, Mohammad Reza Naji, Hossein Mahjoub, Abbas Rahimi, Gholam Ali Bakhsi
Directed by Majid Majidi

"Baran" is an interesting glimpse into Iran, because it's not religious or overtly political. How can you think of Iran without thinking of screaming towel-heads burning American flags before they stone some poor woman to death? After all, Iran is a member of the axis of evil (George W.'s first catastrophic diplomatic mistake), and they're all a bunch of murderous Jihadists, right? We can be sure there are plenty of those, but there are also the moderate Arabs who are just trying to live their lives. This is a simple story about some Iranian and illegal Afghan immigrant laborers that has a subtle political agenda. Besides wanting to humanize these people, the movie also wants to comment on the role women are forced to play in their society. It was filmed before 9/11, and it cautiously pokes at the Taliban. It starts with an Afghan girl who has to masquerade as a boy to replace her injured father on the worksite in Iran, and later there's a nice moment before she returns to Afghanistan when she flips her burqua over her head. This took me aback, and I realized the movie's agenda. In Iran, which is now the most extreme Muslim country, Baran has to disguise her femininity to do "men's work." Before returning to the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, she had to hide her femininity just to be able to live.

Why did Lateef pursue Baran so obsessively? He gave away all of his money and searched high and low for her, but he never even spoke to her after discovering her secret. I don't know anything about Iranian culture, but it's possible he's not really permitted to speak to her. I think it's obvious why he became obsessed with her though. He caught a glimpse of her brushing her hair and learned her secret. In Iran I suppose seeing a girl brush her hair is like watching a girl get a pap smear here in the U.S., and he became obsessed with her. True, she looked like she was about 13, but that may have made her an old maid in their culture for all I know. It's funny how much this whole scenario reminded me of something that happened to me when I was about 13. I was at a friend's house, and I accidentally saw his sister changing shirts in another room. I came out of the bathroom and walked down the hall, and there she was in the laundry room pulling a shirt over her head with no bra. It was the first time I had seen breasts, and I can still see that image in my head. Just like Lateef, I too would have given away all my money and followed her to the ends of the earth, but I think I would have been a little smarter about it. --Bill Alward, April 12, 2003