Allah is the greatest
- watching the Iranian movie "Barron"
Last year, after watching "The Color of Heaven" by the great Iranian director Maji Makidi, I knew that he also has a movie "Barron" that reflects the Afghan refugees. This film is long awaited. Last night, I finally had the chance to see this film, thank God.
At the beginning of the movie, it was still a flatbread, just like the director's other masterpiece "Children of Heaven". Then there was a stupefied boy who brought tea and water to the construction site. Although Iran banned Afghan refugees from working, the foreman still hired a lot of Afghan refugees, because the Afghans were so poor that they could exploit cheap labor. An Afghan broke his leg due to a work-related injury. His daughter Barron had to disguise herself as a man to work on the construction site for the sake of her family's survival. Because of his lack of strength, Barron was assigned to cook rice and deliver tea, and the Iranian boy who was originally doing this task could only carry cement bags. The Iranian guy hated Barron to death, but then he found out that Barron was a girl's secret and fell in love with her quietly. Barron was found by the immigration bureau (like a shelter that checks temporary residence permits in China) and asked her for an ID card. Barron had no choice but to run away. The Iranian guy fought with the immigration bureau to save her (in China, the content is about banned). Barron left the construction site, and the hero looked for her everywhere. When he found her, she had to leave Iran and return to China. The Iranian guy could only watch her away. In the end, only one of Barron's footprints is left in the meaningful shot.
The director is the famous Maji Majidi, I have seen his first two films "Children of Heaven" and "Colors of Heaven", which are touching masterpieces that make people cry. But the first two films are children's films, but this film faces the social reality and depicts the tragic experience of Afghan refugees who fled to Iran under the Taliban rule and are forced to work underworld. However, the heroine in the film is not like the usual Iranian with deep eyes and high nose, but has a round and fair face, the eyebrows and eyes are far apart, and the nose is also small, which looks a bit like a Chinese.
Although the film is set against the background of the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and although some people say that the film has the problem of catering to the tastes of Westerners, I think the difference between the Iranians and the Afghans shown in the film is equivalent to the difference between the cities and the countryside in China. .
In fact, I think this is more like an Iranian migrant worker movie - look, everything is so familiar, as if it happened in the city we are in: the disgraced foreign (Afghanistan) migrant workers on construction sites, defaulting A stingy contractor with migrant workers' wages, an Afghan who broke his leg but could not be compensated for a work-related injury. More similar is the Iranian officials catching illegal immigrants, chasing Afghan girls on the streets, which reminds Chinese people of urban management teams, shelters, temporary residence permits, and Sun Zhigang. The Iranian hotel in the movie must have an ID card, but the migrant workers kept the ID card with the boss, so they could not stay in the hotel. What is even more tragic is that at the end of the film, the male protagonist sees Barron and a large group of Afghan women, carrying heavy heavy stones in the turbulent river - born as refugees in Afghanistan, they can only survive like livestock - born as an Afghan refugee. Is it the same for the migrant workers in ZHONG?
The shots of the Iranian director are always sympathetic. He shows us the cruelest and most real side of life.
Although Iran and Afghanistan are far away from us, I believe that the scenes shown in the film are not unfamiliar to most Chinese people. Such things happen every day in our cities, and people like this happen every day. Living around us - we just don't see it.
However, behind the extremely similarities, the people in the film are somewhat different from the Chinese. Even the annoying foreman is not a hard-hearted person. The Afghans who rolled away with the protagonist's banknotes also left a note with bloody handprints. In the harsh existence, Barron who changed into women's clothes was so gorgeous, although he finally put on the veil and went away.
This is by no means the director's intentional contrivance, but a true portrayal of Iranian society. No matter how tragic the fate is, no matter how cruel the society is, the purest thing in the heart of the heart has not been lost because of religion. In this country where all the people believe in Islam, as long as there is a sense of reverence for the Creator, the heart will not lose its direction. This direction is love and kindness. Just like those Arabic letters at the beginning of the movie - Allah is the greatest.
When I watched the entire film, I realized the meaning of the letters in the title—this is by no means a film that simply tells about suffering, but a hope in despair, a light in darkness, this hope is the hero’s ignorance. Recklessness has become delicate and kind heart, this light is the heroine's eyes that have become strong and calm from humiliation and sadness - all suffering can not stop the most authentic things in human nature, all darkness will be in the hands of women dissipated in. When I saw Barron, who was disguised as a woman, tidy up the filthy construction site kitchen in an orderly, clean and tidy manner, and even put a bunch of green leaves in a glass bottle in front of the small mirror; when I saw that the hero knew that He couldn't be with Barron, but he sacrificed everything he had to help their family, even in the name of a contractor, and finally watched Barron's family go away, leaving him only a footprint of a girl, I finally understand what hope is. Although, all things belong to God - the Creator can deprive you of a happy life, but the Creator will not deprive you of the right to have hope, unless you give up hope yourself.
I believe that the nation that can raise such sympathetic directors and make such excellent films is a wise and kind nation, a nation with a promising future.
But I still feel sad, my sadness is beside us, and there are many compatriots who suffer the same suffering as Barron's, but can we make such a movie? It is also an Asian art film that has entered the eyes of Westerners. Compared with Iranian directors such as Abbas and Majidi, the Chinese Zhang Yimou is too far behind. In the end, they can only become the slaves of such and such heroes.
The most terrifying thing is not the darkness, nor the suffering. The most terrifying thing is that there is no tomorrow in the darkness, and there is no hope in the suffering. Look at the country we live in, those who kill others, which one is not more ferocious than the jackal, and which of those who are suffering is not the walking dead? In them, there is no hope, only desire, and the slaves who have lost hope and love are just slaves and mobs - this is the real despair and fear.
Postscript: The old house of my work unit is being renovated. I often pass by the disgraced migrant workers wearing hard hats around me, and I suddenly feel sad for no reason.
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