Bashu, the little stranger
(Bashu, gharibeye koochak)

A young boy flees the Iran-Iraq war that has engulfed southern Iran and decimated his family. Bashu takes refuge in a truck that drives him towards the north and finds himself in an unknown place, where everything is foreign to him, including the language. The war seems to have died down there, a place rhythmed by a simple life in the fields and village. Na’i, a young peasant woman and mother of two young children and whose husband is absent, takes him in, despite the disapproval of the other villagers. Under the guise of a simple, realistic story, the film turns into a tale where strangeness is a key facet. It allows the filmmaker to plunge himself (and his audience) into the complex experience of becoming a stranger and what this says about a humanity that is varyingly welcoming and more or less human. AK