Bashu, the Little Stranger

Bahram Beyzai finished this film in 1986 but could not release it until 1989, and it is among the most cited works in Iranian cinema. Having lost his home and his entire family in the Iran-Iraq War, Bashu climbs in fear onto a truck and ends up in the north of the country, where everything from the landscape to the language is different. Naii, raising two children alone, finds him, and a bond forms between them without a shared language. It was the first Iranian film to use Gilaki, the language of the Gilan region, as a serious means of expression rather than for comic relief; Susan Taslimi, who plays Naii, is Gilak herself. The production was heavily censored by the state and kept from release for three years, with the strength of the woman character counted among the reasons for the delay. Treating ethnic difference as a richness was a bold choice in wartime Iran. Who it's for: viewers interested in Iranian cinema, the effect of war on children and stories of ethnic identity. Who it's not for: anyone wanting fast narrative, or avoiding content about war trauma and the loss of family.