Baran

Baran 
Directed By: Majid Majidi 
Written By: Majid Majidi 


Baran is a film that requires patience from the viewer as it follows the gradual transformation of an Iranian named Lateef from a lower working class and hot tempered boy mature into a man who learns to be selfless for the sake of love.  Recognition for his deeds often go unrecognized by his love for Rahmat, the Afghani girl disguised as a boy in order to work, but it hardly matters as the now matured Lateef decides to immerse himself in something grander than himself.  Thanks to today’s entertainment industry, love is a common theme that is consistently shoved in the audience’s faces as this overly sweet and blissful feeling portrayed at the most superficial level. What Baran shows viewers is the display of self-sacrifice as a true test of love and that true love for another person often does not end in an ideal situation because in the end, we do not live in a fairy –tale world. Our lives are complicated by the social and political issues of our time. In the case of Rahmat whose real name is Baran and Lateef, the policies of Iran surrounding Afghan refugees and the general plight of Afghans due to continuous war makes Lateef's hopes to be with Baran next to impossible despite his wholehearted efforts. 

Lateef, the main character of this film, works for Memar, the overseer of a construction site who has a pseudo-father role. Memar hires many Afghan refugees for cheap labor. While he is indeed exploiting their labor, he attempts to be as fair as possible, perhaps to make up for his sense of guilt.  When Soltan, an Afghan worker, falls and hurts himself, he agrees to hire Soltan's son Rahmat, and he refuses to heed the Iranian Turks request for more pay than the Afghan refugees.  The scenes filmed at the construction site depict the sheer harshness of physical labor that Afghan refugees undergo in order to make ends meet.  The sight of Rahmat attempting to complete such tasks is quite comical as she is obviously not cut out for a "man's job." Memar assigns her to Lateef's job, serving tea and cooking meals which she is so much more competent at doing. In this way, Majidi asserts traditional gender roles in that the girl succeeds at housewife duties and fails at tasks involving manual labor. 



The weather is consistently quite wretched, always raining and downcast. The weather definitely is a reference to the title of the film Baran, which means rain, and is actually Rahmat's real name.  The word Baran embodies the tone of the situation, a despondency woven throughout the film. No matter what Lateef does, his love for Baran will not work out and that is due to the political situation which is interestingly never directly addressed. As Afghan refugees, Baran and her family are subjected to a life of poverty and denied any rights of citizenship. The concept of legitimizing a national identity is seen through Lateef's character and how much pride he takes in being at least an Iranian citizen, if nothing else.  Baran is also necessary for the enrichment of nature, similar to how the despondency of the situation was necessary for the enrichment and maturation of Lateef's character. 

An interesting point about Baran's character is that she is completely silent throughout the film. The only access we get to Baran is through the visual with the camera lingering on her face. As a viewer, one tries to detect any sort of emotion in her face which tends to be void of any sort of strong emotion. The silence of Baran may symbolize the silenced and marginalized voices of women refugees. In the film, Afghan male refugees obviously undergo a sense of discrimination but are still given a voice in complaining about their situations. They are given more agency than the girl, who has to be disguised as a boy in order to take any sort of action or control in alleviating her situation.  Also, the fact that Lateef saves her from being caught by the immigration officials undermines her agency and plays into the notion of women needing the aid of men in order to survive. 

The overall poetic and lyrical quality of the film is supplemented by the contemplative mood set by lengthy shots that allow the audience to soak in the depth of emotion pervasive in many scenes.  Baran is definitely a film I would recommend for everyone to see, as it exemplifies the beauty of self-growth and love in an environment entangled with issues out of our control. 

http://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2010/12/108-iranian-screenplay-writer-and.html
http://moviessansfrontiers.blogspot.com/2010/12/108-iranian-screenplay-writer-and.html
reliance on facial expressions of the viewers to tell the story. 

Criticism of the trailer for the film Baran 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5UGItdsqUI
- opens up with "in a world where women are forbidden to work…. " even though the premise of the film does not center on the subordination of women but more on lateef's development as a character/ the west loves playing up the gender stereotypes in the middle east even when it isn't completely relevant 
-- narrator's voice and music is very misleading; has a playful, faraway, orientalist flavor to it when the movie actually has a more serious tone and universal themes
- at :30… the  music completely ruins the scene, takes away from the impact of the characters' powerful facial expressions. 
-also the scene where Lateef sells his passport/identification card is misplaced, makes it seem as if baran takes it in order to fulfill her disguise as a boy

The Lizard

                                                                                       

Marmulak (The Lizard) by Kamal Tabrizi

Due to the film’s perceived attacks towards clerics, the film was banned
from theatres in Iran after only being on screen for one month.

Overviews:
In 1501, the establishment of the Safavid dynasty made Shi-ism became the official
religion of Iran. During this time, clerics developed a hierarchical role.
“…evolve to demand obedience from the believers, and, ultimately, the right to
rule.” (Shirazi 3)
Another factor that contributed to the growth of the clerical power was the victory of
the osulis or mjtahedi school of ulema over the akhbari school by the early nineteenth
century.

Information:

This comedy film was directed by Kamal Tabrizi and was produced by Manouchehr
Mohammadi. The main character of the movie was Reza Marmoulak who was played by
Parvis Parastui. The movie was released in 2004 in the Persian language.

Plot:

The film is directed by Kamal Tabrizi and was released in 2004. The main character of
the movie is Reza Marmoulak who is a thief known as “The Lizard. Reza was arrested
and charged with armed robbery in the beginning of the movie, which he did not commit.
Reza was sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, Reza tried to commit suicide
where he steals medicine from the infirmary. He did not go through with the act and
his cellmate tried stopping him but instead the medicine bottle broke which cut open his
arm. Reza is sent to the hospital to recover where he meets a cleric and they both became
friends. Before Reza was discharged back into prison, he steals the cleric’s clothing, and
impersonating him in order to escape. Reza contacted his friends and tried to contact
man who will give him a fake passport to cross the border. Reza tried to hide is identity
and continued to disguise himself as a mullah. Reza stayed at this village where he was
given the opportunity to run the mosque. As he tried tracking down the person to given
him a new identity to escape, he was mistaken by two young boys from the village that he
was visiting the homes of poor people and giving them charity. Everyone in the village
immediately idolized him. Reza started to change little by little and started to transition
himself as a mullah. He was motivated by the quote “There is no one in this world who
doesn’t have a path to reach God.” Reza became a changed man due to all the actions
that was going on. Every time Reza was being selfish; Reza kept on seeing this little boy,
which represented his guilty conscience. At the end of the film, Reza was tracked down

and he goes off with the warden. Reza gave the little boy the mullah gown and told him
that the clothes change people. The warden who tells his associate handcuffs won’t be
necessary and was brought back to prison Tehran.

Key Elements:

• The film bold references criticize the current approach to religion and its
enforcement within society.
• The movie was never meant to criticize the religion but to criticize the role that
some of the clerics have currently undertaken in society. (Shirazi 14)
• The Lizard also criticizes the forced religious morals within Iranian.
society. This is depicted through the prison warden who wants to send his
prisoners to heaven even if by force, as well as Gholam‘ali’s father who constantly
pressuring his son to memorize the Qur’an.



In this scene, Reza who is dressed as a mullah had a difficulty hailing a cab. Eventually
he was able to get a ride but the cab driver took advantage of the fact he was a mullah and
got away driving in the wrong direction and avoided a ticket.



Author:

Kamal Tabrizi was born in 1959 and graduated from the Art University in Tehran. After
a series of short films and working with cultural sections of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Broadcast Television, he made his first featured film The Passage in 1989.

Before "The Lizard" opened in the movie theatres, there was a special preview for
the clergy. Everyone was so curious about the film that many brought their families
along. Women and children were sat on one side of the theatre and the mullahs on
the other. During the funniest parts of the film, loud laughter could be heard on the
family side, while there was bitter silence on the clergy side.

"This just shows how far the clergy have distanced themselves from society," says

Questions:

Did the warden relent and find his own path? If so, how?

Work Cited:

"Should One Be Allowed to Laugh at Mullahs?" Qantara.de. Web. 12 Oct. 2009.
<http://en.qantara.de/Should-One-Be-Allowed-to-Laugh-at-
Mullahs/9336c9440i1p678/index.html>.

Pak-Shiraz, Nacim. "Filmic Discourses on the Role of the Clergy in Iran." British
Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 34.3 (2007): 331-49. Print.

Children Of Heaven

Children of Heaven: An Adventure into Adulthood

by

Eric Laff

Background of the Film: Links to Society

Poverty is a serious issue in Iran even now. It's not surprising that Majid Majidi, the director of the film, opens with a long sequence of a pair of shoes being repaired. The film is set in the rundown southern section of Tehran, the capital city of Iran. The film focuses on a poor family and the struggle of a brother and sister to replace the newly repaired shoes that had been lost at the beginning of the film. The shoes are representation of class in Iran, like a nice watch or expensive car. Throughout the film this theme of class is continually revisited. Particularly when Majidi depicts Ali, the main character, at home with his poor family and disabled mother. Towards the middle of the film Ali and his father travel to a wealthy neighborhood in Tehran for work. The contrast of the two worlds is unavoidably noticeable especially with the addition of Majidi’s brilliant cinematographic skills providing excellent transitions between both worlds.

The film uses children in order to tell the story. Although this is a great method for telling a story it is also a form of social commentary and storytelling in Iranian cinema. Islamic law dictates that unmarried men and women cannot touch, and the household cannot be on screen. Directors  like Kiarostami and Majidi go around this issue by using children in their films in order tell the story and convey their themes. Without a doubt there is an issue of censorship in Iran, children are a way to go around this and still be able to tell a story.

Summary of the Film and Plot

The film begins with the repairing Ali’s sister’s shoes. Ali is out running errands for his family and leaves them outside the shop. Only to have them accidentally taken by a homeless man man and carted away. One Ali  realizes this he goes home but does not tell his parents as he fears he will be punished for his misstep. Ali and his sister Zahra must keep this from their parents and teachers by exchanging shoes in the middle of the day before their gym class (or the Iranian equivalent anyways). In order to keep his sister happy, who adores Ali, he gives her a golden pen that his teacher rewarded him with for being a good student. Towards the middle of the film Ali and his father travel to a wealthy neighborhood in Tehran and provide gardening service to wealthy family and receive payment as a result. After which time Ali learns of a race that provides the second prize winner with a new pair of sneakers. Ali then decides to enter and win the sneakers to trade them for a pair that match his sisters. After entering the race and coming in first place Ali weeps as he lost the opportunity to acquire a new pair of shoes for his sister. But by that point his father had already bought a new pair of shoes for Zahra with the money he was paid for the gardening work done earlier in the film. The film ends with Ali placing his feet in the pool and the fishes swimming towards his feet.
Themes Within:Neorealism and Growing Up

It’s hard to recall the years before growing up. But those years are filled with wonder and beauty. The world is much smaller and often small problems seem like the end of the world. Like losing a pair of shoes, or winning a race and not winning a pair of shoes for your sister but instead given a better prize with greater opportunity attached.

This is not lost in Majid Majidi's film Children of Heaven. The film, although told through the eyes of two poor children, using a neo-realist style still manages to provide a peek into some social themes as well as life in a poor family. Throughout the film Majidi often points the viewer to shoes. Shoes hold a cultural significance within Iranian society. That being a sign of class and wealth.
Majidi's ability to show the childlike wonder of the world even in spite of the real world problems often glossed over throughout the film is intriguing. The final scenes with the Ali resting his feet in the fountain provide said childlike wonder. In pain from running in old torn up sneakers he rest his feet in the pool of water. At that point the fish living in the pool swim to his his feet and in a comforting manner, almost as if they are being personified with personality. The coming of age aspect is especially enjoyable. When Ali’s father explains to him “he is now nine years old” and needs to begin to act like an adult.

His adventure into adulthood is frequently interrupted with scenes of child like amusement. One scene him and his sister wash his dirty shoes and lay with bubbles. This scene also depicts the innocence of children. A theme often used in Iranian films with children. While the bubbles take on a mystical element much like the shoes later in the film.

The personification of creatures and things within in the film is especially pleasing, One scene in particular in which Zahra losses one of her shoes in a gutter and the shoes takes on a mystical property or living properties. Making Zahra chase it until it becomes stuck under a small bridge across the gutter. Majidi plays with the audience through the film. In one case he transitions the film from a surreal dreamlike sequence back to the “real world”.

While gardening in one of the houses in the wealthy neighborhood in Tehran the film enters a dreamlike sequence were Ali plays with the young boy living at the house while his father works. Upon leaving the gates of the house and getting on his bike with Ali, Amir talks of all the nice things he will do with his newly acquired money. The happiness and excitement come to an end when they speed down a hill and lose the ability to break on their old bike crashing into a pole. This transition back to poverty and reality makes for a true story telling experience.

Work Cited:

Cardullo, Bert.  In Search of Cinema:  Writings on International Film Art. (Montreal, Ithaca: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004), Chpts. 2, 5& 6.

Tapper, Richard, ed. The New Iranian Cinema:  Politics, Representation and Identity (NU: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2004), Chpt. 12.

Turtles Can Fly by Bahman Ghobadi
Niki Mirzaei

Background information to know prior to watching film

Iraq’s long war with Iran in the 1980s caused much damage to the lives of many Iraqis. Villagers
were resettled in places called mujama’at, or collective towns in order to prevent them from
supporting Kurdish guerrillas fighting the central government at the time. Helpless efforts were
enforced in some areas but later neglected and not looked upon. (Dagher) More displacement
and damage was caused to the Iraqi people by the US in the invasion of 2003. The forced
displacement is the largest in the Middle East since the 1948 Palestinian displacement at the
inception of the State of Israel. This massive forced displacement accounted for 100,000 persons.
This displacement brought upon psychological damage to both the individuals displaced and the
ones who must care for them. There are affects upon internal, regional and international
securities and economies when a massive displacement like this occurs. Along with displacement
comes the loss of identity, religion, and authority. There are also many children who are
orphaned and have to work and help each other grow in order (Banta)

About the film writer/director

Ghobadi is the only Iranian filmmaker who specifically films his short, long and documentary
films about the Kurdistan region and its people. Ghobadi’s films generally stay away from the
normal view of a family. Instead he focuses on society and how it has lost its balance and
composure and is dealing with social calamities caused by war, violence and poverty. His films
have the key elements that separate them from the norm. These elements are ethnographical,
documentary outlook, children, non-actors, and tragicomedy (Panahi).

Summary of the Film

Turtles Can Fly is a 2004 film written and directed by the Kurdish Iranian filmmaker
Bahman Ghobadi. It was the first film made in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The
film takes place on a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraq-Turkish border on the eve of the
US invasion of Iraq. The film introduces a thirteen-year old boy named Satellite who is
known for his installation of dishes and antennas for local villages. The villagers seek
information about the war and require Satellite to translate because he knows well
English. He is the manipulated leader of the children. He organized a dangerous but
necessary sweeping and clearing of minefields. These mines were later traded in
weapons of mass destruction. The film also has a mystic romance between Satellite
and a new orphan in the village named Agrin. She traveled with her disabled, armless
brother Hengov, who had the ability to predit the future. Se also had a blind childer
named Riga. He was the son of Agrin and an unknown solider who raped her during an
invasion in her homeland

.

Key Elements of Ghobadi’s Films

Ghobadi allows the audience to see the horrors of war through the innocent gaze of the victims in
the Iraqi Kurdistan area. He focuses on society and how it has lost its balance and composure and
is dealing with social calamities caused by war, violence and poverty. His films have the key
elements that separate them from the norm. These elements are ethnographical, documentary
outlook, children, non-actors, and tragicomedy. The children he uses in his films are usually
those who have lost their parents at a very early age and are forced to struggle for the survival
under harsh and inhumane conditions. This makes the films emotionally attachable to the
audience and helps the films gain unique qualities that set them apart from mainstream films.
Despite the bitter and tragic atmospheres and themes in Ghobadi’s films, he still includes bits of
subtle comedy to them. A prominent example is in Turtles Can Fly, in which the satellite TV
programs are presented and the religious reactions of the Kurdish villagers to their content
(Jahed).

Children Traditionally Portrayed in Iranian Film

Iranian films made in the birth of the 1979 Islamic Revolution often feature children. These films
embrace their innocent and naive nature. Iranian movies have child protagonists for several
different reasons but the main reason is to avoid the minefield of Islamic restrictions on the
pictoralization of adult male-female relationships. The use of children actors forms a loop hole to
express the ideas of the filmmakers in a way to please the censorship voids (Cardullo).
The innocence and naive elements that children offer in their roles in cinema are unique
to them. I believe they possess characteristics that adults do not bear due to their lack of
experience and awareness of what is going on in many complex situations and environments
(Cardullo).

Children in Turtles Can Fly

Although this generalization is true in most Iranian films the behavior of the children in
Turtles Can Fly is unique because it places the audience among very unique children and in a
very unique landscape; the landscape of war. These children live in the most dangerous
conditions and environments imaginable. They live in a refugee camp which has a scarce amount
of resources to offer. The camp cannot present the children with parents and any form of paternal
figures. The children are orphaned. Many of the children make a meager living by recovering
and selling land-mines from the surrounding fields. Many of the children make a living by
recovering and selling land-mines from the surrounding fields back to the city. These variables
add up to create a high degree of suspense and tension throughout the film. This sets the film
apart from other Iranian films (Seifkiar).

Loss of Innocence in Turtles Can Fly

I believe the children have loss their innocence in the refugee camp because
they are not acting a regular, normal children. They are forced to adjust to their adult
responsibilities and actions in the camp because the adults are far too elderly to preform
the chores that the children must do. Instead of playing and enjoying their youth they
find themselves clearing land-mines and trying to bargain in the town to earn extra
money. Although the film does have scenes in which the children are playing and having
fun, the fun counteracts itself because of the environment they are in. A moving scene is
when the children are in an ammunition junkyard where empty bomb shells and missile
casings are stored and stacked up on top of each other. This is where the children play and work.
The children are stuck in a realm in between being children and being adults (Seifkiar).

Children on the Warfront

“What makes Turtles Can Fly a very unique film is that it shows the war
from the perspective of children. This is a very different point of view
than the one we usually find in war movies. What the film makes clear is
that in any war or military conflict, children suffer the most and that
when world leaders go to war, it is the children who will bear the brunt
of the misery and grief” (Seifkiar).

School Environment

Generally a school is considered the safest place for children. It is a place in which children are
taught to stray away from violence and they learn good morals and values. Although the teacher
was trying to get the children to stop horseplaying and learn a lesson, it was distracting for the
children because they were in the presence of weapons of mass destruction. The children were
more attracted to playing with the guns rather than learning the fibers of general education.

Brutalities of War

A moving scene of the film are in an ammunition junkyard where empty bomb shells and missile
casings are stored and stacked up on top of each other. The toddler Rega looking through stacks
of bomb shells, crying out “Mommy” and “Daddy” and is searching for them. Then Ghobadi
gives us a close up of Agrin who is gazing at some far away point and seems completely
oblivious to what Rega is doing (or more, she does not care about what Rega is doing). She is
utterly detached from her surroundings. This scene, perhaps better than any other, illustrates very
beautifully and painfully the film’s theme of the brutalities of war. It shows how one can despise
their own child enough to a point where Agrin placed Rega tied to a tree in an explosive field
because she was not mentally nor physically able to take care of the child (Seifkiar).

Powerlessness of those involved in War

Rega needs medical attention so he and Hangov are riding on the back of Satellite’s bicycle to a
place where they can find some help. As they are riding Hangov begins to have a vision n that
the U.S. invasion is about to begin. Ghobadi portrays this by going back and forth from
Hangov’s disturbed face to U.S. bombers loading up for attack and taking off from aircraft
carriers.This scene illustrates the powerlessness and the powerlessness of others who oppose
wars, to affect in any substantial way the decision of those who set wars in motion. Especially
since the characters in this film were children it made their powerlessness more intense
(Seifkiar).

Visible Disabilities of Children

The film shows that because children are to a large extent helpless and
powerless, in wars they become highly susceptible to physical or
emotional injuries. The children have visible injuries and disabilities.
Hangov is missing an arm and many of the other children have broken
legs or are missing legs. Many of the children in this film are intensely
unhappy, because they are forced to live with the constant violence of
war and can not escape it. The children also have mental disabilities.
Agrin is suffering from the tragic events internally instead of showing
signs externally like the other children (Seifikar).

Loss of Hope for the Future

The children are at a loss of hope for the future. They have have nothing
to look forward to in order for them to make changes and try to make
their troubles adjust for a better future. When young children are taking

care of each other, it makes it hard to hope for a better generation. Rega
symbolized the new generation on the refugee camp. The new
generation was thrown away. This was symbolized by the planned
drowning of Rega by his own mother. Even though they tried to save
him, it was too late, therefore it was too late to save the new generation
in general.

Embedded Comedy

There is a lot of humor embedded in the film. The humor is often very
effective and works to soften the blows of the harsh realities which this
film is dealing with. It also makes the film more watch-able and
enjoyable. It makes the film more light hearted and has a less of an
intense depressing effect. He was also very fond of President Busch
prior to the invasion of the American Soldiers (Seifikar).

The Kurdish Respect

The Kurds are the world’s largest ethnic group without their own state.
Their numbers exceed 25 million and most live in Kurdistan.
Historically, Kurds have been treated badly by the regional powers. They
had to endure living under foreign rulers for centuries. Recently, the
Kurds have received especially harsh treatment at the hands of the
Turkish and Iraqi governments and armies. However, some Kurds want
to establish an independent state (Seifikar).

Change in American View

In the beginning of the film Satellite is very fond of the Americans. He
seems very enthusiastic about their arrival and tends to add many
English phrases into his conversations such as “Hello Sir!”. However,
when the American soldiers actually arrive and he realizes what impact
they have on his life and the ones he loves, he looses interest for the
Americans and you can feel his disappointment.

Are Americans Making this film seem different than it actually is?

American Trailer for the film (pay attention to the music and the
lightheartedness)

Compare to actual music from film... how is it different from that of the american
trailer

Extra Videos to Ponder

The music sets the mood for the film, and this video shows the scenes and
pictures in which the children are both happy and sad

Scene from film, satellite tells the elders false news of america vs iraq war

Works Cited

1. Seifikar, Sasan The Heirs of Wars http://www.iranian.com/Seifikar/2005/February/Film2/
index.html

2. Panahi, Jafar Iranian New Wave: Part One
http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/iran-2.jsp

3. Jahed, Parviz. Directory of World Cinema, Volume 10: Iran. (Chicago: Intellect), pp. 254-7).

4. Dagher, Sam. “Uprooted for Decades, Iraqi Kurds Long for Home,” The New York Times,
September 4, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/world/middleeast/04kurdistan.html?
scp=1&sq=uprooted+for+decades&st=nyt

5. Banta, Benjamin R. “Just War Theory and the 2003 Iraq War Forced Displacement,” Journal of
Refugee Studies 21:3, pp. 261-84.

This Blog

Hello To All...

This blog is here to review and discuss many of the themes within some of the best contemporary Iranian films. In the blog posts that follow, the discussion will focus on reviews of well known Iranian films. which includes many of the themes.