Perhaps Iran's most radical director, Abolfazi Jalili's reputation is perhaps less established than that of contemporaries such as Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf. "Don" sees Jalili taking his criticisms of modern Iranian society to new heights with a tale of individual freedom which focuses on Farhad (Bahremand), a nine-year-old illiterate boy whose education is abandoned when he is forced to undertake menial labour in order to support himself and his family. Farhad's very existence is denied by the authorities who wish to take him into care as his father (a similarly uneducated heroin addict) failed to report his birth and so obtain the all important identity card that would allow Farhad to take his place in society.
Bahremand is outstanding as the work-hungry, resourceful juvenile in the central role in what is an urgent, profoundly moving look at identity, responsibility and the value of education. Much like Samira Makhmalbaf's recent "Blackboards", Jalili with both precision and economy questions the morality of a society that could so easily abandon and betray its youth. "Don" is also one of the few films to dare to raise the question of addiction in a religiously fundamental community.
Intelligent, thought-provoking fare which is charged with a naturalism reminiscent of Truffaut's "The 400 Blows", "Don" is a classic of its kind and evidence of a major director whose work (which includes "Det Means Girl" and "Dance Of Dust") is still waiting to be discovered by the mainstream.