BARAN

Last night I watched the Persian movie Baran from Majid Majidi, the same director as Children of Heaven. The movie is about a construction site and the different ethnic groups which are involved in building the apartment complex.
A young boy, named Latif (Hossein Abedini) loses his job at a Tehran, Iran, construction site to the illegally hired Afghan Rahmat (Zahra Bahrami). He begins playing cruel pranks on Rahmat. Soon, however, Latif discovers that Rahmat is actually a girl, and he begins helping shoulder her burden at the construction site. When officials demand that all illegal workers be fired, Latif must choose between safety and social standing, and his young love.
Rahman's real girl name is Baran and the interesting aspect of the movie is the fact that these two never talk to eachother, there is obviously (as a post revolution Iranian movie) no physical contact between the two sexes. Therefore, it is absolutely amazing how Majid Majidi can create the love between them without any words by just using the camera for the boy's eyes and his actions. Latif comes to the point of giving Rahman's family his hard worked salary of 1 whole year and additionally selling his Birthcertificate to make sure that her family has enough money to survive, after her father has broken his leg at the construction site. This of course by not knowing that exactly that money will help the family to move back to Afghanistan, so that he will never see Rahman/Baran again.
In this movie as well as in Children of Heaven Majidi uses the goldfish as symbol of cleanness and innocence.

A very good movie which I would highly recommend.