Review of Baran (2001) by Dave J — 19 Mar 2012

Monday, March 19, 2012.

(2001) Baran.

(In Iranian with English subtitles).

DRAMA.

Small story stretched into a well made hour and a half film! Excellent 1st act, okay second act and 3/4 of the story is conventional with a great 4th act! Similar to other border crossing movies between Mexico and the United States centering on immigrants looking for work, in this case illegal Afganies illegally entering into Iranian soil to make a dollar. Movie stars Hossein Abedini as Lateef whose assigned to the most easiest job of this construction site as tea server and he cuts corners by doing the least amount of work as much as possible to get more for his dollar. Upon coming to work, an injury happens injuring one of the workers, and on the very next day, an old man shows up along with his son claiming that he's working on behalf of the injured person in question! All was okay until this new person accidently spills plaster on another worker below and then Lateef making fun of him at the same time making the boss to pull Lateef out of his easy going job and then giving it to the young boy making him to work with the other workers. Lateef gets upset about this and threatens to get even with the little boy until he suddenly dumping wet plaster on him, who also got the old man he was walking with. The irony was that the supposedly young boy is really a young lady who appears to be almost the same age as the leading character changing his whole attitude toward her who has the opportunity to sqeal on her. This is just on the first thirty minutes by the way, meaing that the reason I'm describing this is that despite what people see on television and on the news about Iranians and about the people of Afganistan, some of the films coming out of there are civilized and non-violent which don't involve any political turmoil at all, with at the same time showcasing females labelled as second class citizens over coming their secondary class roles which is similar to what happened everywhere else no matter where you live. This film is originally a 75% but that one scene near the beginning when Lateef finds out who this boy really is, is powerful as they come.

3 out of 4.