Baran DVD

Baran
Following up on his masterfully told art house successes The Children of Heaven and The Color of Paradise, Majid Majidi directs this quietly affecting tale about illegal Afghan immigrants living and working in Iran. The film centers on Latif (Hossein Abedini), a young Iranian man who buys provisions and makes (awful) tea for the workers of a construction site. At the film's outset, an Afghan worker named Najaf falls from the second story and breaks his leg. A widower with five children to feed, Najaf is in dire financial straits. He sends his teenaged son Rahmat to the site under the care of family friend Solan. The teenager proves to be a lousy worker but a whiz at making tea. After one mistake too many, Memar -- the foreman -- has Latif hauling bags of plaster and puts Rahmat on tea detail -- a task which the lad proves to be quite a talent in. Rahmat also paints the kitchen, changes the curtains, and makes other rather unusual changes to the normally rough-and-tumble construction site. Soon everyone, save the resentful Latif, is eating lunch at an actual table bedecked with a tablecloth. Latif's anger and jealousy evaporates, however, once he makes a surprising discovery. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto and AFI Film Festivals. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Cast n/a

Crew Majid Majidi - Director Hassan Hassandoost - Editor Ahmad Pezhman - Composer (Music Score) Behzad Kazazi - Production Designer Mohammad Davudi - Cinematographer Majid Majidi - Producer Fouad Nahas - Producer Yadollah Najafi - Sound/Sound Designer Majid Majidi - Screenwriter

Baran
During 2001, just before September 11th, Iranian cinema saw a spate of films -- Mohsen Makhmalbaf's stunning Kandahar, Abolfazl Jalili's Delbaran, and Majid Majidi's Baran -- about its troubled neighbor to the East. Whereas Makhmalbaf's film directly addresses the suffering in Afghanistan using a mixture of lyricism and direct political commentary, Majidi stays in his home country exploring the uneasy relations between Afghan refugees and Iran's underclass. The first half of Baran seems pulled straight out of Italian eorealism. Majidi shows the audience the dangerous working conditions, the exploitations, and the shady business dealings of impoverished day laborers. His political message during this half -- the brutal market demands that force Memar to hire Afghans because "they work harder for less money" and the economic state of the Afghan workers which continuously teeters on brink of oblivion -- packs a real charge. In the second half of the film, Majidi retreats from politics into almost the realm of omantic comedy. While the film loses some of its heft in the transition (less charitable reviewers might accuse Majidi of losing his nerve) the film more than makes up for it in lyricism and insightful observation. Latif desperately wants to help Najaf and his family but really has no idea how. Baran is a beautifully wrought tale that is definitely worth a look. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
 

European Film Academy, Best Non-European Film - Screen International Award (nominated) National Board of Review, Freedom of Expression Award (winner)

General Specifications: Language Options: Subtitle Options: English Sound Processing: DD1: Dolby Digital Mono Additional Features: cc Dolby Digital Mono Sound Original language track (Farsi) English subtitles Widescreen (1.85:1) - Enhanced for 16x9 televisions Theatrical trailer DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1: Theatre Wide-Screen MPAA Rating: PG DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 96 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. Opening Credits: Working and Saving [9:46] 2. Unseasoned Help [9:17] 3. Unfit for Work [6:07] 4. More Suitable Labor [4:51] 5. Discovering a Secret [4:50] 6. Building Infatuation [7:18] 7. "Rahmat, Go!" [5:44] 8. Leaving Work Behind [5:37] 9. Searching for Rahmat [4:30] 10. Perplexing Thoughts [5:09] 11. Money Earned [7:09] 12. Struggling to Survive [5:42] 13. "God Bless Him!" [8:44] 14. Unrequited Love [7:18] 15. End Credits [3:31]