Bashu, le petit étranger

This is one of the nicest movie I've ever seen. I just would like to comment on the language. This is an Iranian movie, but the language is not Persian as the small boy (Baashu) speaks Arabic and the region where the film has been shot is Gilaan or Mazanderaan, therefore the language is Gilaki or Mazanderi. It is not really understandable to Persian speakers. So you might need subtitles to understand it. I loved this touching movie. It is the story of a Baashu, a small nomad boy who escapes combats in the south of Iran (during Iran-Iraq war). He jumps in a truck and finds himself in an unknown place where he understands nobody's language. A farmer woman takes him under her protection. The film is about differences or I should say humanity and common feelings among all humans, like love and compassion. I will not tell you more, but advise you to watch this exceptional film. I wish you a nice moment watching this wonderful movie.

Bashu is a moving film about a young Iranian boy who's family is killed during a bombing raid. Bashu escapes by stowing away in the back of a truck and ends up in a completely different part of Iran. He is adopted by Naii, a mother of two young children who's husband is away looking for work.

Bashu is nervous at first, especially as the townpeople are so hostile towards him, but Naii makes him welcome in a very touching and loving way. Naii is a very special person, combining gentleness and love with great strength. She has complete faith in Bashu and is rewarded in return with his smiles and happiness.

I loved the scene with the other young boys of the village in the crop to help the plants grow quicker. The drumming was a recurring subject, and is particularly powerful when Bashu is drumming when Naii is sick.

I thought the calling to the hawks showed a connection between Naii and Bashu but also added an earthiness and naturalness to both their characters.

This is a very moving film and I recommend to anyone.

Bashu deals with a very complex issue which is the vast cultural differences in Iran. It is masterfully done by one of the best directors of Iran, Bahram Beizai. Bashu is the name of a young boy from South-Western part of Iran who happens to end up in Northern part of Iran and experiences the cultural shock. In comparing these two parts of Iran, Beizai masterfully brings out the differences between the people, the climate, the costume, the language, and the past influence of Super-powers (Russia in the North and Britain in the South) meanwhile tying the story together to make a delightful movie.

I saw this movie when it was first released, and have watched it over and over again and recommend it to all.

Bashu is an amazing movie by any standard. I have watched Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf, Panahi, Majidi, but Beyzai supersedes them all inthis great film.

The story is nothing new and nor is it complex. But the way the director showed the complex undertones of complete stranger Bashus psychology was astounding.

My hats off to Beyzai: "YOU ARE THE MASTER"

The Iranian movies continue to astonish me. Beside Kiarostami, the number of Iranian directors making great movies is overwhelming. It is one of the most important movie schools, and the most amazing is that each of their movies is so firmly implanted in the Iranian universe while speaking out universal values.

It was by chance that I watched Bashu today. I had found it on youTube, I had noted the address, to access it later. I decided this morning to see it, just to discover that my notice with the youTube address was lost! I gave a search on the web for Iranian movie with a boy who lost his family and I found it again! A ten years boy looses all his family when the village is bombed during the Iran-Iraq war. He escapes jumping on a cargo truck where he falls asleep. When he wakes up, he is in an unknown place where the landscape is totally different from what the boy knows. Unknown people speak an unknown language and look very different from him. Impossible to understand anyone, impossible to be understood.

No wonder: the boy is from a province in the Southern part of Iran, near the Persian Gulf, and speaks Arabic, while the region where he has arrived is in the North, near the Caspian Sea, where people speak a very remote dialect of Farsi.

But this we'll know much later, probably after the end of the movie, when we start to look for comments and reviews. During the movie we are absorbed in a universe of fantastic that calls in mind the stories of Eliade.

What follows is a great story of love: maternal love and filial love. A woman with two kids of her own, initially reticent, will learn to love the boy like a mother, while the boy, initially just scared, will learn to love his new mother. And this unfolds despite the absolute barrier of language. Development of love, marked by moments when each of the two, the woman and the boy, just realize, with pain and joy, the intensity of the developing sentiment.

Apparently a simple story, actually told with great cinematic finesse. A story rendered with a perfect economy of means: there is a lot that happens there on the screen, while nothing is superfluous, while each scene comes exactly when need is, no earlier, no later. And all the time you feel that the director is in perfect control.

And above all, the great humanity that paces the movie, almost unbearable!