Baran

After I watched this film, I was struck by how enjoyable I had found it. Which is a little odd since it's a serious film about an Iranian boy upset that an illegal Afghani immigrant has taken his job. The film is in large part about the maturity of the boy as he recognizes that the Afghani immigrant is a girl and how hard her life has been since she immigrated. But it's also about the plight of women, albeit very subtly, in these countries. How hard was it for her to masquerade as a boy without her burqa? Would the burqa's veil have been a convenient method for shutting out the growing attentions of the Iranian boy? Why was the veil not worn by the Afghani women in the film? I admit I don't know the answers to these questions or how to find out if the director was subtly implying any feminist message, but I wonder if it would change my enjoyment of the film. That is, my enjoyment as a woman watching the film. All those unanswered questions leave me somewhat unsure about the film in general. I'm not sure a man watching the film would feel the same way, unless they were sensitized to the plight of Muslim women. Of course, if the film is only viewed as a growth and maturity story it's quite entertaining, enlightening and educational. And that's plenty good enough.

year: 2001
length: 94 min.
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233841/combined