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Internationally acclaimed and Oscar-nominated
Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi (The Color of Paradise; Children
of Heaven) writes and directs Baran ("Rain"), a film that
exalts the universal qualities of love, compassion and selflessness.
Rather than using these themes as manipulatory devices aimed at triggering
the viewer's emotional response, a practice common in contemporary dramas,
Baran offers viewers an honest portrayal of the realistic dilemmas
confronting its characters and of the inspiring ways by which they learn
to overcome them.
Specifically, Baran focuses on Lateef
(Hossein Abedini), a seventeen-year-old Iranian worker whose duties in a
construction site involve running simple errands for his boss Memar (Mohammad Reza
Naji), and making daily rounds of hot black tea for the
other workers. When illegal Afghan refugee Rahmat (Zahra Bahrami) is hired
to replace an injured man, the younger worker soon proves to be too weak
for construction work and is told to switch jobs with Lateef. Rancorous
and unappeasable, Lateef spies on Rahmat and tries to upset his work, but
in the process finds a blameless, beautiful girl, whose undeterred
commitment to help her family subsist teaches the young man the meaning of
endurance, benevolence and devotion.
The story of Baran is set in Iran, after the
armed Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. It provides a glimpse of the
living conditions of Afghan refugees, many of whom fled to this
neighboring country and who had to endure harsh working conditions as
illegal workers. While the film comments on the competition between
Afghans and native Iranians in the workplace, it focuses on a young
Iranian's internal conflicts, as he initially experiences feelings of
rivalry and rejection toward an Afghan worker. Tempted to exercise his
power over the vulnerable, illegal worker that took his job, Lateef,
however, is slowly transformed as a result of discovering the subject's
internal beauty and tragic situation. By following the process of Lateef's
dramatic transformation, Baran establishes a moral solution to
those human weaknesses that often provoke hostile relationships and,
ultimately, wars. Not devoid of humor, Baran exalts those universal
human strengths that provide hope to a pained world.