Baran (2001)

A Masterpiece!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This is almost a silent film using very few words. So, I won't use many to review the film.Majid Majidi composed a poem in the form of 'Baran'. In its imagery, narration and cinematic expressions, Baran must be the greatest romance the world has seen on screen.The acting is as good as you get. As it is said that the best acting is when you don't realize that it is acting. This film has the same kind of performances.Majid proves it once again with this film that you do not need skin show to depict a great romance. The greatest romance is told here without even touching the finger of the love interest.

I use movies as an adjunct to my English class in Ladakh, a remote part of India. I like to show movies from different countries, and movies by this director always satisfy. It does mean that my students are reading subtitles rather than listening to English, but reading in chunks is a real-life reading skill, so I like to mix subtitled non-English movies in with English ones.Being Iranian, this movie is, of course, squeaky clean for showing to students in a conservative society.The character of Lateef is fun to do a character word-web about and my students came up with some great descriptive words, since his character is not all positive, and changes over time. Pre-teach that it's from Iran, and the language is Farsi (not Arabic). Because of many years of war, lots of Afghans are refugees in other countries, and in Iran they have trouble because without ID cards they aren't allowed to work, shop in shops, or stay in hotels. Make sure to catch the names of Najaf (the guy who has the accident at the beginning), his friend Sultan, the central character Lateef, and the boss Memar, because a lot of important plot points happen in discussions mentioning a character.

One of the aspects of this film not touched by other reviews here is the quality of the directing. it is incredible how as you watch the film your natural inclination to see the situation solved is completely drowned out by the motion of the film. Its unusual to find such a philosophical film that keeps both your eyes and heart wide awake.The truly altruistic nature of love, the crazy things it makes you do and not regret are born out in this film in beautiful ways. From an Iranian perspective it is an interesting look at cross-cultural phenomena but I think the average American doesn't know enough about Afghani, Kurdish and Iranian culture to appreciate that.You see this coming from the start but I'll warn you that the next thing I say might spoil part of the film for you:My favorite scene is at the end when she drops her burka as she realizes he loves her, realizing how dangerous her beauty is, how it has left this poor boy in emotional and financial chaos and how she cannot do anything to help.

There are directors who give one or two classics and are considered immortal and than there's Majid who gives classic back to back. Well I don't have word for him.Baran is one such film from the director who has given us Children of Heaven. The simplicity of the film and the simplicity of cinematography are exemplary. Way the beauty of Iraq is captured is amazing. Each scene is aesthetic yet poignant. With minimal dialogues and no dialogues for the girl playing the title role it is quite an experimental film. If any one has noticed the film there are only on three instances that background score comes into play and during this time you will notice that we are watching a movie and not a documentary. They cast which was mostly non-professional actors looks authentic and spontaneous. The technical aspects are simple like an achievement. And last scene when rain (Baran) starts pouring down to fill the mark created by Baran's shoes is overwhelming.To write about the director will be like undermining his work. In one word he is brilliant.If you have not seen it you are completely missing one genre of films.