BASHU, THE LITTLE STRANGER (BAHRAM BEYZAIE, 1989)
BASHU, GHARIBEYE KOOCHAK
Randwick Ritz, Sydney:
1:20 PM
Sunday 03 May
Lido Cinemas, Melbourne:
1:15 PM
Sunday 10 May
Rating: PG
Duration: 121 minutes
Country: Iran
Language: Farsi, Gilaki and Arabic with English subtitles
Cast: Susan Taslimi, Parviz Pourhosseini, Adnan Afravian
SYDNEY TICKETS ⟶
MELBOURNE TICKETS ⟶
1:20 PM
Sunday 03 May
Lido Cinemas, Melbourne:
1:15 PM
Sunday 10 May
Rating: PG
Duration: 121 minutes
Country: Iran
Language: Farsi, Gilaki and Arabic with English subtitles
Cast: Susan Taslimi, Parviz Pourhosseini, Adnan Afravian
SYDNEY TICKETS ⟶
MELBOURNE TICKETS ⟶
4K RESTORATION – AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
‘[This] film made in Iran decades ago tells us more about who we are and who we could be than many contemporary works. It demonstrates that cinema, when rooted in its own culture yet open to universal themes, can achieve immortality.’ – Bijan Tehrani, Cinema Without Borders
Fleeing his home in the Persian Gulf after an airstrike leaves him orphaned, ten-year-old Bashu (Adnan Afravian) arrives in a village in Iran’s verdant north. Stranded in this unfamiliar place with a different language, culture and skin colour, he meets Naii (Susan Taslimi), an impoverished mother of two who takes him in. Mature beyond his years, this little stranger soon becomes an essential member of her household; but overcoming the racial prejudices of his adopted community will prove a much harder task.
Completed in 1986 and shelved by authorities until 1989 for political reasons, this humanist parable from master filmmaker Bahram Beyzaie was fittingly awarded the prize for Best Restored Film at Venice in 2025.
Introduced by Amin Palangi at Ritz Cinemas and Hamid Taheri at Lido Cinemas.
Presented in cooperation with the Persian Film Festival Australia.
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‘[This] film made in Iran decades ago tells us more about who we are and who we could be than many contemporary works. It demonstrates that cinema, when rooted in its own culture yet open to universal themes, can achieve immortality.’ – Bijan Tehrani, Cinema Without Borders
Fleeing his home in the Persian Gulf after an airstrike leaves him orphaned, ten-year-old Bashu (Adnan Afravian) arrives in a village in Iran’s verdant north. Stranded in this unfamiliar place with a different language, culture and skin colour, he meets Naii (Susan Taslimi), an impoverished mother of two who takes him in. Mature beyond his years, this little stranger soon becomes an essential member of her household; but overcoming the racial prejudices of his adopted community will prove a much harder task.
Completed in 1986 and shelved by authorities until 1989 for political reasons, this humanist parable from master filmmaker Bahram Beyzaie was fittingly awarded the prize for Best Restored Film at Venice in 2025.
Introduced by Amin Palangi at Ritz Cinemas and Hamid Taheri at Lido Cinemas.
Presented in cooperation with the Persian Film Festival Australia.
FILM NOTES
By Michelle Langford
By Michelle Langford
Associate Professor Michelle Langford teaches Film Studies at the University of New South Wales. Her research spans the cinemas of Germany and Iran.
This screening is dedicated to the late Bahram Beyzaie (1938-1925), distinguished Iranian playwright, film director and scholar, often called the ‘Shakespeare of Persia.’
For what seems like just a fraction of a second, Susan Taslimi’s penetrating gaze emerges from the lower edge of the screen to look directly at the camera, and at us. In this singular moment, her face, almost completely veiled, but for her dark eyes, shatters a fundamental rule of post-revolutionary Iranian cinema – that a woman’s gaze must remain passive and indirect – and sears her image into global memory as one of the most iconic moments in Iranian film history. Her powerful presence helped to re-shape how Iranian women would be portrayed in the post-revolutionary period, no longer as distant and passive, but as active and powerful agents in film narratives. While Bashu, The Little Stranger 1985) was the last film Taslimi would make in Iran before being forced into exile in Sweden, her presence in the film as the central female character Naii has helped to make it a landmark of post-revolutionary Iranian film.
Directed by renowned playwright and auteur Bahram Beyzaie in 1985 during the Iran-Iraq war, Bashu’s release was delayed for three years because the director refused to make numerous cuts demanded by the censors. It follows a young boy, Bashu (Adnan Afravian), an Arab-Iranian who flees his hometown in the south of Iran during heavy bombardment, his parents and sister killed. He stows away in a truck, travelling through barren deserts and mountain ranges, eventually emerging in the lush, green landscapes of Gilan near the Caspian Sea. Soon after his emergence into this veritable paradise, his recent traumas are triggered by explosions set off by a road crew. He flees like a frightened animal and arrives on the outskirts of a small village where he encounters Naii, a wife and mother whose husband has been away for many months (ostensibly for work, but likely an army conscript). Bashu is initially reluctant to approach, but Naii patiently encourages him by leaving out food and water. Throughout the film, Bashu’s traumas are powerfully conveyed via poignant sound and image combinations and by the regular appearance of the ghost of Bashu’s mother. The film’s heavily pacifist themes, its direct, confronting treatment of war-induced trauma and implicit disruption of the myth of Persian monoculturalism, together with the portrayal of a strong and commanding woman at its centre, contravened numerous aspects of the regime’s strict censorship rules. The film’s transgressions were particularly heightened in the context of the war years when celebration of the war and idolisation of martyrs in the Sacred Defence genre was the norm.
The film opens in the midst of the heavy bombardment of a city in Khuzestan in southern Iran. Although not explicitly named, the port cities of Khorramshahr and Abadan, which were vital centres in this oil-rich region, became sites of intense battle early in the war, with Khorramshahr captured by the Iraqi army in 1980 and eventually re-captured by Iran in 1982. Khuzestan is home to a large Arab-Iranian population who predominantly speak Arabic. Upon his arrival in the northern village, Bashu’s dark appearance and inability to speak or understand colloquial Persian brings out the prejudices of the community, with many warning Naii that no good will come from taking in this stranger. Part of Naii’s strength as a character is her wilful defiance of the local community and extended family, shooing them away and doubling down on her decision to care for the boy, despite being unable to communicate via spoken language.
Alternative modes of communication are deeply embedded in the film, particularly in Naii’s innate ability to converse with the natural world. She plays music in the fields to encourage the crops to grow, imitates the cawing of crows, clucking of chickens, and barks like a dog to scare away wolves, foxes and wild boars. While, on one level, these utterances show her connection to and understanding of the natural world, on another they exemplify Beyzaie’s interest in ancient Iranian mytho-poetic traditions. Farshid Kazemi (2025) has linked the female voice in Beyzaie’s cinema to the Indo-Iranian tradition of Vac, ‘the female divinity or goddess (izad bānu) of the word, speech, or voice.’ This figure is ‘related to the theme of creation, fertility, and life.’ Importantly, according to Kazemi, ‘the mytho-poetics of the female voice in Beyzaie’s cinematic universe subverts the patriarchal logic operative in Iranian cinema, by foregrounding female subjectivity, autonomy, and agency.’ Naii’s animalistic voice, and adoption of a gestural dialect informed by the natural world, are indicative of her subtle resistance against patriarchal convention and the hegemonic construct of a homogeneous and mono-lingual Iranian nation. This language of nature, which she gives voice to, is just one of numerous languages in the film: Arabic, colloquial Persian, Gilaki and formal Persian. Beyzaie insisted that these not be subtitled for Iranian audiences, so they would experience directly the alienation felt by the characters, but also so they may experience something of the innate adaptability to modes of communication beyond language that enable these characters to commune in a way that transcends but does not erase difference. Alongside the exchanging of linguistic vocabulary, Bashu learns to mimic Naii's natural language, and it is largely this, more than his acquisition of colloquial Persian or Gilaki, that helps him forge a connection with the village boys, whose instinct is to tease and bully him for his difference.
Bashu was one of the first of the post-revolutionary Iranian art films to circulate widely at international festivals and it helped to make Beyzaie widely known and to clear a path for works by the likes of Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Rakhshān Banietemad to be received internationally. Despite continuing to face censorship, Beyzaie managed to complete five more feature films in Iran and wrote many screenplays before leaving Iran for good in 2010. He took up a position at Stanford University where he taught in the Iranian Studies program and was active staging plays. He passed away on 26 December 2025 aged 87, leaving a legacy summed up by fellow Iranian director Jafar Panahi 2025): ‘We learned from him how to stand against forgetfulness.’
For what seems like just a fraction of a second, Susan Taslimi’s penetrating gaze emerges from the lower edge of the screen to look directly at the camera, and at us. In this singular moment, her face, almost completely veiled, but for her dark eyes, shatters a fundamental rule of post-revolutionary Iranian cinema – that a woman’s gaze must remain passive and indirect – and sears her image into global memory as one of the most iconic moments in Iranian film history. Her powerful presence helped to re-shape how Iranian women would be portrayed in the post-revolutionary period, no longer as distant and passive, but as active and powerful agents in film narratives. While Bashu, The Little Stranger 1985) was the last film Taslimi would make in Iran before being forced into exile in Sweden, her presence in the film as the central female character Naii has helped to make it a landmark of post-revolutionary Iranian film.
Directed by renowned playwright and auteur Bahram Beyzaie in 1985 during the Iran-Iraq war, Bashu’s release was delayed for three years because the director refused to make numerous cuts demanded by the censors. It follows a young boy, Bashu (Adnan Afravian), an Arab-Iranian who flees his hometown in the south of Iran during heavy bombardment, his parents and sister killed. He stows away in a truck, travelling through barren deserts and mountain ranges, eventually emerging in the lush, green landscapes of Gilan near the Caspian Sea. Soon after his emergence into this veritable paradise, his recent traumas are triggered by explosions set off by a road crew. He flees like a frightened animal and arrives on the outskirts of a small village where he encounters Naii, a wife and mother whose husband has been away for many months (ostensibly for work, but likely an army conscript). Bashu is initially reluctant to approach, but Naii patiently encourages him by leaving out food and water. Throughout the film, Bashu’s traumas are powerfully conveyed via poignant sound and image combinations and by the regular appearance of the ghost of Bashu’s mother. The film’s heavily pacifist themes, its direct, confronting treatment of war-induced trauma and implicit disruption of the myth of Persian monoculturalism, together with the portrayal of a strong and commanding woman at its centre, contravened numerous aspects of the regime’s strict censorship rules. The film’s transgressions were particularly heightened in the context of the war years when celebration of the war and idolisation of martyrs in the Sacred Defence genre was the norm.
The film opens in the midst of the heavy bombardment of a city in Khuzestan in southern Iran. Although not explicitly named, the port cities of Khorramshahr and Abadan, which were vital centres in this oil-rich region, became sites of intense battle early in the war, with Khorramshahr captured by the Iraqi army in 1980 and eventually re-captured by Iran in 1982. Khuzestan is home to a large Arab-Iranian population who predominantly speak Arabic. Upon his arrival in the northern village, Bashu’s dark appearance and inability to speak or understand colloquial Persian brings out the prejudices of the community, with many warning Naii that no good will come from taking in this stranger. Part of Naii’s strength as a character is her wilful defiance of the local community and extended family, shooing them away and doubling down on her decision to care for the boy, despite being unable to communicate via spoken language.
Alternative modes of communication are deeply embedded in the film, particularly in Naii’s innate ability to converse with the natural world. She plays music in the fields to encourage the crops to grow, imitates the cawing of crows, clucking of chickens, and barks like a dog to scare away wolves, foxes and wild boars. While, on one level, these utterances show her connection to and understanding of the natural world, on another they exemplify Beyzaie’s interest in ancient Iranian mytho-poetic traditions. Farshid Kazemi (2025) has linked the female voice in Beyzaie’s cinema to the Indo-Iranian tradition of Vac, ‘the female divinity or goddess (izad bānu) of the word, speech, or voice.’ This figure is ‘related to the theme of creation, fertility, and life.’ Importantly, according to Kazemi, ‘the mytho-poetics of the female voice in Beyzaie’s cinematic universe subverts the patriarchal logic operative in Iranian cinema, by foregrounding female subjectivity, autonomy, and agency.’ Naii’s animalistic voice, and adoption of a gestural dialect informed by the natural world, are indicative of her subtle resistance against patriarchal convention and the hegemonic construct of a homogeneous and mono-lingual Iranian nation. This language of nature, which she gives voice to, is just one of numerous languages in the film: Arabic, colloquial Persian, Gilaki and formal Persian. Beyzaie insisted that these not be subtitled for Iranian audiences, so they would experience directly the alienation felt by the characters, but also so they may experience something of the innate adaptability to modes of communication beyond language that enable these characters to commune in a way that transcends but does not erase difference. Alongside the exchanging of linguistic vocabulary, Bashu learns to mimic Naii's natural language, and it is largely this, more than his acquisition of colloquial Persian or Gilaki, that helps him forge a connection with the village boys, whose instinct is to tease and bully him for his difference.
Bashu was one of the first of the post-revolutionary Iranian art films to circulate widely at international festivals and it helped to make Beyzaie widely known and to clear a path for works by the likes of Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Rakhshān Banietemad to be received internationally. Despite continuing to face censorship, Beyzaie managed to complete five more feature films in Iran and wrote many screenplays before leaving Iran for good in 2010. He took up a position at Stanford University where he taught in the Iranian Studies program and was active staging plays. He passed away on 26 December 2025 aged 87, leaving a legacy summed up by fellow Iranian director Jafar Panahi 2025): ‘We learned from him how to stand against forgetfulness.’
THE RESTORATION
Source: Mk2 Films
Restoration in 4K at Roashana Studios, Tehran, with the support of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (KANOON). Restoration curated by Kamran Saharkhiz
Director: Bahram Beyzaie; Production Company: Roashana Studios with the support of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults; Producer: Ali Reza Zarrin; Screenplay: Bahram Beyzaie; Photography: Firooz Malakzadeh, Jahangir Azad, Iraj Safavi; Editor: Bahram Beyzaie, Nasser Ansari; Production and Costume Design: Bahram Beyzaie, Iraj Raminfar // Cast: Susan Taslimi (Naii), Adnan Afravian (Bashu), Parviz Poorhosseini (Naii’s husband).
Iran | 1986 | 121 mins | 4K DCP | Colour | Farsi, Gilaki and Arabic with English subtitles | PG
Restoration in 4K at Roashana Studios, Tehran, with the support of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (KANOON). Restoration curated by Kamran Saharkhiz
Director: Bahram Beyzaie; Production Company: Roashana Studios with the support of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults; Producer: Ali Reza Zarrin; Screenplay: Bahram Beyzaie; Photography: Firooz Malakzadeh, Jahangir Azad, Iraj Safavi; Editor: Bahram Beyzaie, Nasser Ansari; Production and Costume Design: Bahram Beyzaie, Iraj Raminfar // Cast: Susan Taslimi (Naii), Adnan Afravian (Bashu), Parviz Poorhosseini (Naii’s husband).
Iran | 1986 | 121 mins | 4K DCP | Colour | Farsi, Gilaki and Arabic with English subtitles | PG