Majid Majidi's morality tale opens in simple but stunning pastoral Iran, where an unassuming ostrich farmer, Karim (Berlin Film Festival Best Actor Winner Reza Naji), struggles to support his family, leading a simple and contented life in a small house. In a string of bad luck, Karim?s daughter loses her expensive hearing aid, an ostrich comically runs away from the farm, and Karim is suddenly fired.  However, his financial woes are short-lived when Karim, who had traveled to Teheran in order to repair his daughter's hearing aid, stumbles upon an easy way to make money quickly in the bustling city: he inadvertently gives a man'a ride on the back of his motorbike in return for a fee, a relatively good sum which prompts him to continue his taxi service on a regular basis. Every day Karim rides into town, bringing back home all kinds of rummage - old furniture, car parts etc., and soon finds himself entangled in a world of hustle, materialism and greed. The people and material goods start to transform Karim's generous and honest nature, much to the distress of his wife and daughters. It is up to those closest to him to restore the values that he had once cherished, and Karim must find a way to reconcile his new life with the old.

Grammy-nominated composer and musician Hossein Alizadeh, a master tar and setar player, provides the haunting score.

After directing four short films ("Explosion," "Hudaj," "Exam Day" and "A Day with the Iraqi Prisoners" from 1984 to 1988), he made his feature film debut Baduk in 1991. Living in the border towns of the Baluchistan region in Iran, the Baduks are children who carry illegal merchandise across the Pakistan?s border. Majidi?s daring film focused on the plight of a teenage brother and sister who are kidnapped and sold to slave.

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Majid Majidi (Official Site)
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