Q:Build a movie plot around this: Who plays Naii? Susan Taslimi
A:
The film opens in the midst of an Iraqi air raid in the state of Khuzestan in Southern Iran. Beizaei films Bashu (Adan Afravian) caught between bombs exploding, a scene of a Muslim woman (his Mother) burning, and a young girl (his sister) running lost in the smoke. He needs to escape and so he jumps into the back of a truck heading North out of the war. From this point on Bashu enters another reality in a remote farming village Gilan near the Russian border where the people are lighter skinned and speak a different language. There Bashu meets Naii (Susan Taslimi) and her children. By accepting him into her family as one of her own children, Naii poses the fundamental question we hear from the film - "Aren't we all children of Iran?" From out of war torn trauma, Bashu finds hope and trust with Naii's family.Parallels are drawn throughout the film between Bashu and Naii as culturally repressed figures in Iran. Bashu is a dark-skinned, Arab speaking boy, which at the time defied the Persian nationalism thought to unify the country. And, Naii being an uneducated woman who could not read or write would normally not be able to manage on the farm without her husband. Yet, these differences are what bring Bashu and Naii to depend on each other for support and their own sense of family and belonging. This bond is seal at the end of the film when the husband returns with a missing arm and therefore becomes grateful and accepting of Bashus role as his son on the farm.Although Naii and Bashu are culturally repressed characters due to their gender and race, Beizaei lifts them up as strong and successful characters able to survive on their own, care for each other, and thus defy the racial and sexist stereotypes against them.