Bashu, The Little Stranger
After his family is killed in a bombing, young Bashu flees southern Iran alone and arrives in a remote northern village. Unable to speak the local language and shunned as a little stranger, he is taken in by a mother of two whose husband is away. A fragile bond slowly begins to grow between them.
A landmark of Iranian cinema and a deeply humanist work, BASHU, THE LITTLE STRANGER blends realism with the quiet lyricism of a modern fable. Produced in 1985 with the support of Kanoon (the Iranian state institute that also backed Abbas Kiarostami’s early films), the film stands as a sincere and enduring plea for tolerance, and a subtle critique of rigid social norms. In 1999, it was voted “the greatest Iranian film of all time” by a panel of 150 critics and professionals.
Restoration in 4K at Roashana Studios with the support of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon).
Cast
- Susan Taslimi
- Adnan Afravian
- Parviz Pourhosseini
- Akbar Doodkar
- Hamid Rahbar
- "Simple and quietly effective...."
- "“Bashu, the Little Stranger” is a pure joy in which there are absolutely no false moves and both laughter as well as tears. Every movement of the camera, its every placement, its every composition, indeed, every cut in the film is exactly right, serving unobtrusively to tell a story."
- "Bashu, The Little Stranger remains one of the most luminous works in the history of Iranian cinema and its recognition at the Venice Film Festival is both a triumph of artistic integrity and an affirmation of the universal power of storytelling that transcends borders, languages, and cultural boundaries. Bahram Beyzai’s masterpiece is at once a tale of exile, survival, motherhood, cultural collision, and above all, human resilience, told with a poet’s sensibility and a dramatist’s sharp instinct for human conflict."
- "A masterpiece."
- "A vital cinematic masterpiece. A reminder that art at any time, in any place, awakens human consciousness and shows us humane paths through friendship, coexistence, and peace."
- "Four decades later, one can see more clearly than ever how Beyzaie transforms the cinema screen into a window carved from the history and literature of Iran, opening it onto a beautiful and spectacular world."
- "Forever one of the most important directors in Iran. BASHU, THE LITTLE STRANGER contains a message that is everlasting."
- "Not merely a film for me; it is an image etched into the memory of my childhood."
Gallery
Awards & Recognition
Best Restored Film
Venice Film Festival
Toronto Int'l. Film Festival
Chicago Int'l. Film Festival
Mar del Plata Film Festival