Delbaran

Kalim, 14, does odd-jobs at Khan's truckstop near the Afghan border. He shouldn't; he's a refugee, and there's a cop always on the lookout for the Afghans he suspects pass through into Iran with a little help from cunning old Khan. Kalim's got by so far, but there are few hiding places in the desert while he's helping out with the countless vehicles that break down. How long can he remain at liberty? Several contemporary Iranian films have centred on Afghans. But this has less in common with Kandahar than with Djomeh, and not only because it concerns refugees. It displays a lighter touch than that exercised by Makhmalbaf père. Jalili may specialise in tough stories about the perilous plight of children, but he eschews melodrama, message-mongering and maudlin simplification, and sometimes favours an elliptical, impressionistic, allusive narrative over a conventional linear structure. Not that Jalili's work is unduly obscure; allow a little time for the establishment of character, milieu and situation, and his finest films attain a poetic lucidity unique to themselves.