The film is remarkable for the naturalistic acting of its cast, particularly the tender performances of the two leads, Hossein Abedini and Zahra Bahrami.

| Mar 23, 2010

It stays with you in fleeting images of gazing faces, muddy footprints, small fires lit against the chill.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 20, 2002

It reminds us of what a film can be when it's drawn from the heart of an artist who believes in the medium as something more than a product or commodity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 13, 2002

A mix of gritty realism, crisp storytelling and radiant compassion that effortlessly draws you in.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 20, 2002

More timely than its director could ever have dreamed, this quietly lyrical tale probes the ambiguous welcome extended by Iran to the Afghani refugees who streamed across its borders, desperate for work and food.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2002

At the right time of day, in the right frame of mind, Baran can and should be appreciated as a work of delicate and unmistakable beauty.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 19, 2002

Majidi is an unconventional storyteller, capable of finding beauty in the most depressing places.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 18, 2002

The tale is simply but effectively told.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jun 21, 2002

Matches neorealism's impact by showing the humanity of a war-torn land filled with people who just want to live their lives.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 20, 2002

It's the saddest story of love in a long while, yet liberating in the way it instils a sense of oneness with all humanity.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 10, 2002

The film is saved from aren't-kids-cute sentimentality by a warmth that isn't faked and a stately sense of composition.

| Original Score: B | May 10, 2002

Though the pathos of this fable-like love story feels overcalculated, Majidi succeeds in playing the classical Dickensian balance, with the sentimental hook justified by the social sweep of the narrative.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 10, 2002

Baran is the latest in a flowering of good films from Iran, and gives voice to the moderates there. It shows people existing and growing in the cracks of their society's inflexible walls.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 4, 2002

Heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes apart, sometimes together.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 3, 2002

Further solidifies [Majidi's] growing reputation as one of the cinema's most gifted humanist filmmakers.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 3, 2002

Majidi's portrait of southwest Asian poverty is bloodless and fastidiously arranged, his regard for his thin characters negligible.

Full Review | Apr 30, 2002

Majidi tells his simple story with dazzling vision.

| Dec 7, 2001

Majidi's poetic love story is a ravishing consciousness-raiser, if a bit draggy at times.

Full Review | Dec 7, 2001

A far more impressive and affecting piece of filmmaking and storytelling than most movies put out by Hollywood this year, and offers, as a bonus, a glimpse into a fascinating, contradictory society.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 7, 2001

Brings an irresistible blend of warmth and humor and a consistent embracing humanity in the face of life's harshness.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 7, 2001