Variety Film International February 19-25 2001
Produced by Fouad Nahas, Majid Majidi
Directed, written by Majid Majidi
Camera ( Color): Mohammad Davoudi
Editor : Hassan Hasandoost
Music: Ahmad Pezhman
Production Designer: Behzad Kazzazi
Sound: Yadollah Najafi
Sound Mix: Reza Delpak
Reviewed at Fajr Film Festival, Feb 5, 2001.Running time: 94 minutes
By DEBORAH YOUNG
Stepping back from the magical colors and all-stops-out
sentiment that earned "Children of Heaven" and the "Color
of Paradise" worldwide distribution and awards, director
Majid Majidi retrenches to more sober but still very touching
drama on "Baran". Though the film's less flamboyant
tone may make it less immediately appealling, it ultimately seems
a mature choice capable of striking even deeper emotional chords.
A fine cast brings the believable, sometimes humourous characters
to life and gradually draws the viewer into a well-crafted, well-paced
story. As the most interesting new picture screened at the recent
Fajr Festival, it looks poised for success domestically as well
as through international distribs, particularly in territories
where the director has been previously introduced to auds.
The hopeless love story between a cocky iranian boy and a
destitute young afghan girl, told in gestures and glances, skillfully
binds together the broad social theme of refugees with Majidi's
vision of the spiritual purity that is attainable through selfless
love.
Shot like a smoky, high-rise hell, a construction site in northern
Teheran pays low wages to Iranian and clandestineAfghani workers.
The latter commute long hours from refugee villages, are paid
less and have to hide when building inspectors come around. Scrappy
tea boy Lateef ( Hossein Abedini) views the Afghans darkly, especially
when a weak new boy is given his easy job, and he is forced to
carry heavy cement bags.
As is pretty obvious from the first, the bundled-up waif is a
girl in disguise, Baran (Zahra Bahrami). Comically, she adds much-appreciated
feminine touches to the grim site, like patterned tableclothes,
plants and superior cooking. For some reason, the men don't catch
on.Only Lateef, as he plays malicious tricks on her, stumbles
onto her secret.
Secretly love struck, he now does what he can to ease her hardships.
Lateef's love surpasses conventional sentiment and approaches
the ineffable.What makes this particularly moving is the simplicity
of the characters, in Abedini's and Bahrami's expressive but unaffected
perfs.
In its bittersweet closing scenes, the film reaches moments of
great visual poetry. One of the most visually accomplished of
Iranian directors, Majidi and his cinematographer Mohammad Davoudi
abandon the bright hues of "The Color of Paradise" for
sad grays and greens. Colors appear only in scenes with women.
Baran's vulnerable face is an indelible image in itself, a symbol
of the misery into which some of 1.4 millions afghans refugees
have plunged. Ahmad Pezhman's score is handles with a light touch.