Baran is the latest in a long line of Iranian films that have graced North American screens in recent years, and although director Majid Majidi’s tale of unrequited love may lack the artistic boldness and political daring of Kiarostami and Makhmalbaf, it does embody many of the virtues associated with Iranian cinema, including a fairly simple storyline, a realistic and almost documentary-like portrayal of everyday life, a sensitivity to social issues, a compassionate filmmaking technique, and a sensual and almost mystical appreciation of nature. (The title means “Rain”, and it is also the name of one of the characters.)
The film is set on a construction site where some of the workers happen to be Afghan refugees whose employment there is not entirely legal. When one Afghan worker falls and hurts his leg, his son shows up to take his place and earn the money which the family depends on, but the boy is so clumsy that the boss gets him to serve tea to the other workers — a job that used to belong to feisty, temperamental 17-year-old Latif (Hossein Abedini). Latif resents having to do real work, and he goes out of his way to make things miserable for the new tea-boy, but then he stumbles upon a secret — the new boy is actually a girl named Baran (Zahra Bahrami). Rather than use this knowledge against her, Latif is suddenly smitten with her, and there is something pure, quixotic and sacrificial — and maybe even obsessive — about