Bashu, the Little Stranger
About Bashu, the Little Stranger
During the Iran-Iraq war a bomb kills the family of Bashu, an Afro-Iranian Arab boy in Khuzestan. He hides on a truck and gets off in the Caspian north, where the language and the fields are not his. Na'i, a Gilak farm woman whose husband is away, tries to drive him off, then leaves food. He speaks Arabic. She and her two children speak Gilaki. He can read Persian. He calls her mother, works the farm, and when she is ill he cries and beats a drum. Village adults sneer at his skin and tell her to wash the dark off. Children hit him until he reads a schoolbook line, “We are all the children of Iran.” Her husband comes home with no money and one arm gone. They argue about the boy. Bashu asks who the man is. The husband says he is his father. Bashu offers a hand, sees the missing arm, and they hold each other. The family runs into the field yelling to drive off a boar.
Cast & crew
More about Bashu, the Little Stranger
Bahram Beyzai wrote and directed it. Filmed in 1986 and released in 1989. A date on record is 1 February 1989. It runs 120 minutes. Firooz Malekzadeh photographed. Alireza Zarrindast produced, with the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. Susan Taslimi, herself Gilak, plays Na'i. Adnan Afravian is Bashu. Parviz Pourhosseini is the husband. Farrokhlagha Houshmand is the sister-in-law. It is the first Iranian film to use Gilaki as the language of a drama rather than a joke. Bashu’s speech is Khuzestani Arabic, and the schoolbook is Persian.
Themes
Background
Made during the Iran-Iraq war and released in 1989, after the fighting. The bombing is Khuzestan. The refuge is the Caspian farm.
Making
Beyzai keeps the war off the northern farm except as what the boy saw and what took the husband’s arm. The talk is three languages. The schoolbook is the one sentence everyone in the yard can follow.
Reviews
Picture World’s November 1999 poll of 150 Iranian critics and professionals placed Bashu first among Iranian films.
Look
Firooz Malekzadeh shot the truck road north and the Gilaki farm, including the bazaar and the field where they chase the boar.
Preservation
A 120-minute print survives.
Notes
- Na'i writes to her husband, a veteran looking for work, and asks him home for the harvest.
- Bashu goes with her to the bazaar to sell what the farm grows.
- He sees his dead family and wanders. She finds him again.
- In November 1999 the magazine Picture World polled 150 Iranian critics and professionals. They voted this the best Iranian film.
- The Persian title is باشو غریبه کوچک.
Scenes
- He climbs off the truck into a landscape whose language he does not speak.
- She leaves food instead of driving him off for good.
- He reads the schoolbook aloud while the children are hitting him.
- The one-armed husband says he is Bashu’s father. The family runs at the boar.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (فیلم سینمایی باشو ، غریبهای کوچک - براساس واقعیت - جنگ ایران و عراق.webm)
Quotes
We are all the children of Iran.