Bahrani’s Film ‘Goodbye Solo’ Anything but Garden Variety

Although the exotic sounding birth name of director Ramin Bahrani and the beauty of his films might give the impression of an auteur with an accent and high brow vernacular, the American-born director is as American as apple pie or his hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Bahrani recently sat down with The Epoch Times to discuss his most recent film Goodbye Solo, and the world that he creates through his characters—a world that is anything but garden variety.

Bahrani’s last two films are noted for taking a protagonist with an unusual set of circumstances. In Man Push Cart, that character is Ahmad, a former Pakistani rock star who sells coffee and donuts at a push cart in Manhattan. In Chop Shop, the everyday hero is Alejandro, a Latino street orphan working at an auto-body shop struggling to make a better life for himself. These characters represent a piece of the melting pot that is America, but they also have their quirks that make them unique individuals.

And despite any struggles they encounter, the happiness in their hearts draws the audience into the film. The same quality is present with his lead character Solo in his new film Goodbye Solo.

Based upon a real person Bahrani met while in North Carolina—anonymously named “O” for anonymity—Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane) is a genuine and sincere smooth talking Senegalese cab driver in Winston-Salem who picks up an old rough Caucasian southerner, William (Red West). His customer is quiet, yet belligerent. The two begin a unlikely friendship, as Solo attempts to use the time to positively influence William’s despair.

Bahrani emphasizes that his character Solo, like his other characters are as real as it gets. They are not supposed to be part of a fairy tale, but of the reality we live in as Americans and humans in the world.

“[Solo and my other characters] are real people ... and they are connected more by their poverty than their ethnicity, which means that now they are even more connected with the people in this country and this world.”

“These are not marginal characters ... these are the majority ... hand to mouth, small home, modest dream, trying to get by and that doesn’t mean sad and depressing. Usually it means that’s it ... and they are usually enjoying their life.”

The character, Solo, who has his own struggles, through a much labored and sincere style, wins over his taxi fare, the hard-headed William as a friend, much like Bahrani wins over the audience of his films with his extended-shot, cinematic style, directing, and editing.

“I like to stay with things ... I think that is important because it gives the viewer a chance to enter into those characters.”

“For example when people saw Man Push Cart they were like oh is Ahmad still pushing a cart? Or is Alejandro in Chop Shop, did you get him into school yet? Or man, what about Solo, is he still in North Carolina?”

“One of the reasons why people get so invested into these characters and feel that they are real is you had a little second to live with them. The scene isn’t done just because they are done talking.”

Bahrani was hesitant to point to a particular intention or meaning to his new film Goodbye Solo, which won the prestigious FIPRESCI International Critics Prize Venice Film Festival award in August of 2008.

“How to love someone unselfishly. How to love someone even more than yourself, even if it is painful to you ... and to accept that. The final shot of the film, the road, is an acceptance of life, which is more important than us. I believe firmly in the importance of a human being’s action’s to another person that is paramount.”

Goobye Solo opens this Friday at the Angelika Film Center and City Cinemas this Friday March 27.