Baran !

Baran, The rain in Persian, assimilates in her eyes and innocence, a 10 year old Afghani girl who portrays central role in the movie Baran. The story takes place in Iran in 1980s, significant decade in the chronology of revolutions. It revolves around Afghan refugees who have migrated to Iran due to instability in their homeland and work illegally as cheap laborers on construction sites in Iran.‘ The devastation combined with an ensuing civil war, reign of Taliban regime, Three year drought; prompted millions of Afghans to flee their country. The UN estimates that Iran now hosts 1.5 million Afghan refugees.’ Say the lines on the screen to make us understand the gravity of the circumstances, before the movie starts. In spite of being characterized worldwide as a romantic fable, in less than two hours, this movie communicates an intensity of various problems faced by masses during the years of volatility ranging from denial of insurance benefits, other official benefits of savings in public institutions, forced low wages due to non availability of identity cards, corruption to rising inequality between aristocracy and grassroots and many more. On a broader level, Baran is an expression of a proletariat’s life in today’s world. Director and script writer Majid Majidi, justifying his mark of authentic and characteristic expression of art, culture and society of Persian terrain; has been successful in making yet another impact on spectator through this movie. The movie interacts with the audience rather than explicitly stating the facts or the hardships faced by ordinary people. The space given to the audience by the director to interpret and understand the film makes it a powerful medium of communication. An existence of sheer compassion makes the protagonists evolve out of grassroots in Majidi’s movies. This, I feel, is the soul of his creations. Latif, a lazy, immature and resentful young man from Iran has to shift from his effortless job as a tea maker on the construction site to the real job as a worker at the same construction site because of Rahamat, an Afghan refugee, who starts to work in his father’s place to feed his family after a catastrophe at the site where his father loses his leg. Latif discovers that Rahamat is infact a girl in disguise. In the movie, Latif, in spite of being lazy and unproductive retains his job and earns more than the hard working underpaid afghan refugees. Nafez, after losing his leg in an accident on the construction site doesn’t get paid for the treatment because of unavailability of insurance. Also, he loses his job for being absent on the work as a daily wage earner. A girl has to work in a boy’s attire with a false name Rahamat, in her father’s place because in a male dominated society women are not allowed to work. The employers at the construction site take a risk of employing Afghan refugees in spite of the frequent raids of the government to track down illegal workers. This gives us an idea of immense benefit received by the employers due to availability of cheap labor though after deducting the cost of the bribe paid to the officers. Life in the refugee camps gives an idea of the plight in day to day life of the families who are struggling for mere survival and means to earn. Hence, the movie, not colorful but grey and dusty in the appearance throughout, is a true picture of grassroots. Due to the consequences of migration as a macro level problem such as increasing burden over public services, increase in insurgent activities, threat to the national security etc. it has occupied great significance in countries’ domestic and international policies while at the micro level, a proletariat’s susceptible life has been ruining irrevocably. But in his relentless search of means to survive, vivacity in his life is still remaining as Majidi illustrates it through lingering glimpses of footprint in the rain, fish in the pond outside a muddy hut or a waving curtain of the shrine.