A friend asked me how long I spent writing Strangers. I had to reply, "twenty-four years." It
took almost that long to muster the courage to leave my life in America and for
the first time come to Iran. I lived, searched and communicated with a
"Yankee accent" for over one year; and then made my film with that very same accent.

While working on the film, I found myself seduced by Rumi:

Often it chances a Hindu and a Turk speak the same language;
And often it chances two Turks are strangers to one another.

This fibre of vision enlightened my central character, a stranger on the roads of southern
Iran, exploring the landscapes, villages and past of his fathers' home. A man struggling with an
identity blurred by broken and merging borders, relentlessly searching inward amidst a
myriad of accents and cacophony of cultures.

I hope anyone who has felt the hypnotic potency of Rumi's simple, yet poignant lines of
poetry will be enticed to embark on a journey with the strangers of my film.

- Ramin Bahrani, 1999     

Born and raised in America to Iranian parents, Ramin Bahrani graduated Columbia University
with a degree in film theory. He left New York City to work at the North Carolina School
of the Arts – Film School before moving to Iran for the past two years to
live and make his first feature film, Strangers.

Ramin has made numerous 16mm short films, the last of which Backgammon (1997) received
him an Emerging Artists Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council.
Backgammon was screened at the Denver, Atlanta and Palm Springs International Film
Festivals as well as on PBS, Public Television.

Based on his screenplay for Strangers, Ramin received the prestigious Writer’s
Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council in 1999 to write his next
feature length screenplay.

Contact Us