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Bashu, the Little Stranger

Original title: Bashu, gharibeye koochak
  • 19891989
  • 2h
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
2.9K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)
  • Drama
  • War
An iranian little boy is Lost from the south to northern part of the country after running away for his life, a little boy whose family have been killed during the war is saved and trained b... Read allAn iranian little boy is Lost from the south to northern part of the country after running away for his life, a little boy whose family have been killed during the war is saved and trained by a middle-aged woman.An iranian little boy is Lost from the south to northern part of the country after running away for his life, a little boy whose family have been killed during the war is saved and trained by a middle-aged woman.
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
2.9K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Bahram Beyzaie
  • Writer
    • Bahram Beyzaie
  • Stars
    • Susan Taslimi
    • Parviz Poorhosseini
    • Adnan Afravian
Top credits
  • Director
    • Bahram Beyzaie
  • Writer
    • Bahram Beyzaie
  • Stars
    • Susan Taslimi
    • Parviz Poorhosseini
    • Adnan Afravian
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 16User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos9

    Adnan Afravian in Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)
    Susan Taslimi in Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)
    Susan Taslimi in Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)
    Susan Taslimi in Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)
    Adnan Afravian and Susan Taslimi in Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)
    Adnan Afravian in Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)
    Susan Taslimi in Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)
    Bashu, gharibeye koochak (1989)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Susan Taslimi
    Susan Taslimi
    • Naiias Naii
    Parviz Poorhosseini
    Parviz Poorhosseini
    • Naii's husbandas Naii's husband
    Adnan Afravian
    • Bashuas Bashu
    Golshan Anooshe
    • Loghman's wifeas Loghman's wife
    Akbar Doodkar
    Akbar Doodkar
    • Marhamatas Marhamat
    Farokhlagha Hushmand
    • Sister-in-lawas Sister-in-law
    Reza Hushmand
    Hamid Rahbar
    • Marhamat's sonas Marhamat's son
    Azizollah Salmani
    • Loghmanas Loghman
    • Director
      • Bahram Beyzaie
    • Writer
      • Bahram Beyzaie
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit
    It is 1987 at the middle of the Iran-Iraq War, Bashu, a young boy loses his house and all his family. Scared, he sneaks into a truck that is leaving the area. He gets off the truck in the Northern part of the country, where everything from landscape to language is different. He meets Naii, who is trying to raise her two young children on a farm, while her husband is away. Despite cultural differences, and the fact that they do not speak the same language, Bashu and Naii slowly form a strong bond. —Sam Tabibnia <samtab@uclink.berkeley.edu>
    • boy
    • poverty
    • amputated hand
    • war aftermath
    • superstition
    • 7 more
    • Plot summary
    • Plot synopsis
    • Genres
      • Drama
      • War
    • Parents guide
      • Add content advisory

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      When Na'i becomes sick and the villagers won't help, Bashu performs a zar ceremony. Zar refers to an African belief that the body has been possessed by an evil wind, and in order to be cured, a ceremony involving drumming and chanting must take place to subdue the wind and return the afflicted to health. It was brought to Iran by Africans (many of them through the slave trade).
    • Connections
      Featured in Once Upon a Time, Cinema (1992)

    User reviews16

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    Great Humanity Pacing the Movie, Almost Unbearable
    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!
    helpful•21
    1
    • p_radulescu
    • May 23, 2010

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 3, 1991 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • Iran
    • Official site
      • sourehcinema
    • Languages
      • Arabic
      • Persian
    • Also known as
      • Bashu - Der kleine Fremde
    • Filming locations
      • Gilan, Iran
    • Production company
      • Kanun parvaresh fekri
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Related news

    New Iranian Cinema and Its Myth
    New Iranian Cinema and Its Myth
    Apr 13AsianMoviePulse

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