# Baran (باران)
**Baran** (باران, "Rain") is a 2001 Iranian drama film written, directed, and produced by [Majid Majidi](https://www.edgepedia.org/majid-majidi), set among Afghan refugee laborers on a Tehran construction site. It premiered at the 19th Fajr Film Festival, where it won six Crystal Simorgh awards, and it was Iran's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[1](https://wikijoo.ir/index.php/Baran_%28film%29) • [2](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-07-et-baran7-story.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer / producer | Majid Majidi, with Fouad Nahas and the Farabi Cinema Foundation as producers[1](https://wikijoo.ir/index.php/Baran_%28film%29) • [3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2001/films/baran) |
| Year and language | Iran, 2001 (1379 SH), in Farsi[3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2001/films/baran) |
| Lead cast | Hossein Abedini as Lateef, Zahra Bahrami as Baran/Rahmat, Mohammad Amir Naji as Memar[4](https://fest.afi.com/2001/asian-new-classics-2001/baran/) |
| Fajr Film Festival | Six Crystal Simorghs: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Abedini), Best Score (Ahmad Pezhman), Best Sound Mixing (Mohammadreza Delpak), Best Sound Recording (Yadollah Najafi)[1](https://wikijoo.ir/index.php/Baran_%28film%29) |
| Montreal World Film Festival 2001 | Grand Prize of the Americas and the Jury Prize[1](https://wikijoo.ir/index.php/Baran_%28film%29) |
| Oscar entry | Iran's submission for Best Foreign Language Film[2](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-07-et-baran7-story.html) |
| Critical reception | Metascore of 79 from 25 critic reviews; distributed in the United States by Miramax Films[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/baran/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film is set on a building site in Tehran where Iranian and undocumented Afghan laborers work side by side. Lateef, a 17-year-old Iranian, holds the comparatively easy job of buying food and preparing the workers' meals, while the Afghans perform the heavy labor hauling sacks of cement and concrete.[6](https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2002/04/iranian-film-depict-culture-clash) • [7](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/baran-2002)
When an Afghan worker is injured in a fall, the site manager, Memar, offers work to the man's eldest son, who arrives under the male name Rahmat. The newcomer is too small and weak for the heavy loads, so Memar switches the two: Rahmat takes over the kitchen duties and Lateef is sent to do the hard physical work he had avoided. Furious at the demotion, Lateef sabotages and torments his replacement.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/05/03/irans-baran-through-a-lens-gently/0d739c48-f50a-420b-be6d-6758e3b63d87/) • [3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2001/films/baran)
Lateef then discovers that Rahmat is in fact a young woman named Baran, working disguised as a man in place of her invalid father. His hostility turns into fascination and quiet devotion. When a ban on employment for Afghans ends her work, Lateef searches for her, sees the poverty of her family's life, and gives them all his savings, only to learn that Baran and her family intend to leave Iran for good.[1](https://wikijoo.ir/index.php/Baran_%28film%29)
A distinctive feature noted by viewers and critics is that Baran, the female protagonist, does not speak a single word of dialogue in the film; Lateef's growing understanding of her situation is carried almost entirely by observation.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233841/) • [8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/05/03/irans-baran-through-a-lens-gently/0d739c48-f50a-420b-be6d-6758e3b63d87/)
## Production and cast
Majidi served as writer, director, and co-producer, with Fouad Nahas and the Farabi Cinema Foundation; the cinematographer was Mohammad Davoodi, the editor Hassan Hassandoost, and the composer Ahmad Pezhman.[1](https://wikijoo.ir/index.php/Baran_%28film%29) • [4](https://fest.afi.com/2001/asian-new-classics-2001/baran/) As in his earlier films, Majidi cast almost entirely nonprofessional actors, and much of the film proceeds like a wordless play in which Lateef watches Rahmat at work.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/05/03/irans-baran-through-a-lens-gently/0d739c48-f50a-420b-be6d-6758e3b63d87/) Seventeen of the performers, including Zahra Bahrami and Hossein Rahimi, took their first substantial acting roles in this film.[10](https://www.manzoom.ir/title/tt4895361/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-1379)
The film followed Majidi's international successes *Children of Heaven* (1997) and *The Colour of Paradise* (1999), and critics described *Baran* as a more realistic and visually sophisticated work than its predecessors.[3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2001/films/baran) • [11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233841/criticreviews/)
## Themes and context
The backdrop is the large Afghan refugee population in Iran. Since the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, more than 1 million Afghans have moved to Iran, many living and working illegally and struggling to support their families.[6](https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2002/04/iranian-film-depict-culture-clash) • [2](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-07-et-baran7-story.html) The film shows the rifts between Iranian workers, whose livelihoods are endangered by the refugees' illegal status, and the Afghans, who are exploited more severely and must hide when inspectors appear.[3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2001/films/baran)
Majidi avoided overt political argument. In a later interview he said his intention in making the film was to perform a service for the migrants and to make attitudes toward them kinder, and he reported that screenings in the United States, shortly after the September 2001 attacks, prompted humanitarian organizations to offer help for Afghanistan.[12](https://www.radiofarda.com/a/1131581.html) Reviewers read the film as a personal story of transformation set within that social turbulence: the critic Adrian Martin, an Australian film critic and longtime reviewer for Australian and international publications, wrote that the title's secondary sense, "Rain," is explained only in the closing moments and encapsulates the film's political meaning and emotional effect.[13](https://adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/b/baran.html)
## Reception
At the 19th Fajr Film Festival (1379 SH) the film won six Crystal Simorghs, including Best Film and Best Director for Majidi and Best Actor for Hossein Abedini, with additional nominations for screenplay, cinematography, editing, set design, and makeup.[1](https://wikijoo.ir/index.php/Baran_%28film%29) • [10](https://www.manzoom.ir/title/tt4895361/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-1379) At the 2001 Montreal World Film Festival it received the Grand Prize of the Americas and the Jury Prize.[1](https://wikijoo.ir/index.php/Baran_%28film%29) It was selected as Iran's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[2](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-07-et-baran7-story.html)
Critical reception in the United States was broadly favorable. The film's Metascore on Metacritic is 79 based on 25 reviews, with 24 positive, none mixed, and one negative; Roger Ebert of the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) scored it 88 and praised it for giving human faces to strangers, while the Village Voice's Michael Atkinson, in the sole negative review, called it simplistic and gimmicky in the context of Iranian cinema.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/baran/) The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday, an American film critic who later became chief film critic for that paper, described Majidi as one of the cinema's most gifted humanist filmmakers and singled out Mohammad Amir Naji's comic timing as Memar.[8](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/05/03/irans-baran-through-a-lens-gently/0d739c48-f50a-420b-be6d-6758e3b63d87/)
## References
1. [باران (فیلم), Wikijoo](https://wikijoo.ir/index.php/Baran_%28film%29)
2. [A Heartfelt Look at Afghan Immigrants, Los Angeles Times (Kevin Thomas, December 7, 2001)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-07-et-baran7-story.html)
3. [Baran, International Film Festival Rotterdam programme](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2001/films/baran)
4. [BARAN, AFI FEST 2001](https://fest.afi.com/2001/asian-new-classics-2001/baran/)
5. [Baran Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/baran/)
6. [Iranian film depict culture clash, The Tufts Daily (March 31, 2002)](https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2002/04/iranian-film-depict-culture-clash)
7. [Baran movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com (May 3, 2002)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/baran-2002)
8. [Iran's 'Baran': Through A Lens, Gently, The Washington Post (Ann Hornaday, May 3, 2002)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/05/03/irans-baran-through-a-lens-gently/0d739c48-f50a-420b-be6d-6758e3b63d87/)
9. [Baran (2001), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233841/)
10. [فیلم باران, Manzoom](https://www.manzoom.ir/title/tt4895361/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-1379)
11. [Baran (2001) Metacritic reviews via IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233841/criticreviews/)
12. [فیلم باران ساخته مجید مجیدی، در آستانه نامزدی جایزه اسکار, Radio Farda](https://www.radiofarda.com/a/1131581.html)
13. [Baran, review by Adrian Martin (June 2003)](https://adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/b/baran.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Romantic drama films 2000s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license