Bashu, Gharibeye Kouchak

At the height of the Iran-Iraq war, Bahram Beizai made Bashu: the Little Stranger. Beizai’s film tells the story of young Bashu, who, displaced from his home in Khuzestan thanks to an Iraqi bombardment, seeks refuge in northern Iran. Bashu speaks Arabic while the villagers of northern Iran speak Gilaki. Thus Bashu fails to communicate with the people and is alienated from his new environment. He undergoes a further displacement when he hallucinates and sees his mother, who was killed in the bombardment but who wanders as an apparition through the fields of northern Iran. Past and present collide in this powerful story about childhood and war. The magnificent Susan Taslimi plays Naii, a middle-aged mother of two who takes Bashu in when her fellow villagers, by and large, reject him on the basis of his ethnicity. Filmed at the height of the war in 1985, the film experienced delays in its release, for the authorities found its message on the war to be, at best, ambiguous. At a time when cinema was recruited into the war effort, the authorities called for simple answers to complex questions: Does Beizai condemn the Iraqi invaders? Or does he condemn war in general terms as the total failure of the human spirit? Audiences found their own answers when the film was released in 1989.

Synopsis by IMVBox Bashu, the little boy who has lost his house and family in a bombing raid, gets away and finds himself in an area far-off the war zone. In his new surroundings, everything seems quite unknown and strange to him. Na’i, the woman whose husband is in travel, finds Bashu in her farm and gives him a place. The next day, Bashu tells Na’i about his past in his own language, then Na’i accepts him as her own child. Na’i does her best to help Bashu adapt to the new environment. As the time passes, they find a common language to communicate with each other. Despite the many problems and the others’ disagreement, Na’i keeps Bashu by her. Finally, Na’i’s husband is back, and by encountering Bashu, he also accepts him wholeheartedly.

باشو کودکی که خانواده و کاشانه اش را در بمباران از دست داده، ناخواسته و گریزان به منطقه ای بسیار دور از جنگ می رود. اما در این محیط همه چیز برایش غریبه و ناشناخته است. نائی زنی که شوهرش در سفر است، باشو را در مزرعه خود یافته و به او پناه می دهد. روز بعد باشو، سرگذشتش را به زبان خود برای نائی بازگو میکند و نائی او را چون فرزند خود میپذیرد. نائی برای هم آهنگ نمودن باشو با محیط تازه تلاش میکند. رفته رفته آن دو زبان مشترکی برای ارتباط می یابند و نائی به رغم همه مشکلات و مخالفت اطرافیان، باشو را نزد خود نگه میدارد. سرانجام شوهر نائی از سفر بازمیگردد و او نیز در برخورد با باشو او را صمیمانه پذیرا می شود.