Baran  ( Rain) is a 2001  Iranian  film directed and written by  Majid Majidi. The movie is set during recent times in which there are many  Afghan Refugees  living on the outskirts of Tehran.  Baran  won a number of awards both nationally and internationally for the director and writer Majid Majidi.

It is  winter  in  Tehran. The movie is a romantic fable about a construction worker. His name Lateef (Hossein Abedini), and he labors on a building site not far from the border with Afghanistan. All of the labor here is manual, including hauling 50-pound bags of cement up a series of ramps. Lateef doesn’t actually work very hard, since he is Iranian and most of the labor is being done by underpaid refugees from Afghanistan. Lateef is the tea boy, bringing hot cups to the workers and drinking more than his own share. Lateef prepares and serve tea and food for the workers with whom he frequently quarrels. They come from throughout  Iran, but particularly  Iranian Azerbaijan. Some are refugees from  Afghanistan. They have no identity cards and are employed illegally. When labour inspectors arrive, they must hide.

At the beginning of the movie they have shown millions of Afghanis comming in Iran as refugees. Since it is illegal to hire them, they work secretly for low wages. Many are fleeing the Taliban for the comparative greater freedom and prosperity of Iran, a distinction that may seem small to us, but not to them. One day there is an accident on the site. A man named Najaf injures his leg, and that is a catastrophe, because he has five children to feed in the squatters’ camp where his family lives. Najaf sends his son Rahmat (Zahra Bahrami) to take his place, but the son is small, slight and young, and staggers under the burden of the concrete sacks. So Memar, the construction boss, who pays low wages but is not unkind, gives Rahmat the job of tea boy and reassigns Lateef to real work.

Lateef is lazy, immature, resentful. He trashes the kitchen in revenge, and makes things hard for Rahmat. Yet at the same time he finds something intriguing about the new tea boy , and eventually Lateef discovers the secret. he is shocked to discover that Rahmat is a girl. As he watches her comb her hair, he becomes disoriented and hears strange sounds. His attitude changes; he becomes protective, helpful in love.

While Rahmat does not express herself, over time she seems to respond. During a surprise visit of the inspectors, they encounter Rahmat. She panics and flees, and they pursue her. Lateef restrains the inspectors, allowing Rahmat to escape. Lateef is beaten and arrested. Memar must pay a fine, comply with the law, and lay off all illegals.

Lateef can’t bear Rahmat’s absence, and seeks Soltan for news. He goes to where the Afghans live, walks around, meets an enigmatic cobbler, and ends up in the courtyard of a shrine near a graveyard where Afghanis are gathered for a milk ceremony. He inquires about Soltan, but gets no clues. Among the Afghans stands Rahmat in female clothing. She sees Lateef, stares at him, then leaves. Lateef is not aware of her. The next day, he finds Soltan, and learns that Rahmat works near the river. Lateef rushes there to find Rahmat working unhappily with other women carrying heavy stones. He is distressed, and wants to find a way to help her. He obtains his wages and hands them to Soltan to pass them to Najaf. They agree to meet the next day at the shrine. Instead of Soltan, Najaf shows up to inform Lateef that Soltan has gone to Afghanistan. He tells Lateef that Soltan came to him and offered him money he’d borrowed from someone but he refuse d it an advised Soltan to use it to leave for Afghanistan where he had a serious family issue.

The next day Lateef he overhears that Najaf is also faced with family problems in Afghanistan, as his brother has been killed. He hears Rahmat’s real name is Baran. Lateef goes to find an exhausted Baran carrying stones. The next morning, Najaf is at the construction site begging Memar unsuccessfully for a loan. Lateef sells the only valuable thing he has, his identity card. When he brings the money, Lateef learns that Najaf and his family will use it to return to Afghanistan. Lateef is overwhelmed and finds refuge in the shrine. There, he hears the same sounds he heard when he first saw Baran. He accepts his fate. The next day, while helping Najaf to load a truck with household effects, Lateef is finally face-to-face with Baran. Through eye contact and proximity, they exchange their feelings of love. As Baran covers herself and walks to the truck, her shoe gets stuck. Lateef takes her shoe out of the mud, and hands it to her. The truck takes Baran away. Alone, Lateef stares at the footstep in the mud, and smiles while the rain covers it.

Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com observes : “Majidi uses sunlight, a completely free resource if you can time your filmmaking around it, as a dazzling special effect.” What happens between Rahmat and Lateef I will leave you to discover. There are many surprises along the way, one of the best involving a man Lateef meets during a long journey — an itinerant shoemaker, who has thoughtful observations about life. “Baran” is the latest in a flowering of good films from Iran, and gives voice to the moderates there. It shows people existing and growing in the cracks of their society’s inflexible walls.

Miramax released the film for viewing in  New York  and  Los Angeles  on 7 December 2001.

2001 Grand Prix of the Americas Award for Best Film at the Montreal World Film Festival.

2001 Best Screenplay & Best Director at the Gijón International Film Festival.

2001 Oecumenical Special Award for Best Film at the Montreal World Film Festival.

2001 Nominated Best Foreign Film Satellite Awards.

2001 Best Film & Best Director Awards at the 19th Fajr International Film Festival.

Photos courtesy Google. Excerpts taken from Google.