DELBARAN

Year: 2001
UK: ICA Projects
Cast: Kaim Alizadeh, Rahmatollah Ebrahimi, Hossein Hashemian, Ahmad Mahdavi
Director: Abolfazl Jalili
Country: Iran
Language: Farsi (English subtitles)
UK: 96 mins
UK Certificate: PG contains mild language and violence
UK Release Date: 19 April 2002 (Limited Release - London)

Synopsis

At a remote truck stop in the small Iranian town of Delbaran - a real border post and the Farsi word for 'lovers' - an Afghani boy scrapes a living as a dogsbody, doing everything from making the tea for the garage's opium-smoking clientele to hauling broken down vehicles off the road.

Backed by Takeshi Kitano's production company and dedicated to `all the children of war', the award-winning DELBARAN combines the political urgency of Kandahar with Kiarostami's humour and the characteristic visual poetry of Jalili (whose earlier film DANCE OF DUST was much acclaimed).

Strikingly composed and beautifully played by a non-professional cast, DELBARAN is both another jewel in the crown of recent Iranian cinema and a film evocative of Herzog or Antonioni in its depiction of survival amidst inhospitable surrounds.