The first time I interviewed filmmaker Ramin Bahrani in 2007, I asked him what I refer to as the “$100 million question.”
If someone gave you a $100 million budget, what kind of movie would you make?
Without hesitation, the Winston-Salem native said he would never make a $100 million film. Instead, he would make 100 smaller films for $1 million each.
Two years later, his response has changed, but only slightly.
“I have three projects I want to do,” Bahrani says by phone from his New York home. “One of them I can make again for $1 million, but two of them are period films so they might cost between $5 million and $10 million.
“So now, I would probably say I would divide it up and make anywhere between 10 and 20 films.”
These last two years have been kind to Bahrani. His debut film, “Man Push Cart,” a low-budget drama about a Pakistani rock star turned push-cart vendor scraping to get by in New York, earned praise from major critics around the world.
And although most indie filmmakers strike out with their sophomore efforts, Bahrani did the opposite with “Chop Shop.” It won an Independent Spirit Award and a spot on many top 10 lists for 2007.
“Chop Shop” also solidified Bahrani’s place at the heart of a national filmmaking movement dedicated to portraying the lives of low-income Americans enduring financial crises. Other examples include Kelly Reichardt’s “Wendy and Lucy” and Courtney Hunt’s “Frozen River,” which, like “Man Push Cart” and “Chop Shop,” are character studies about people living paycheck to paycheck.
With “Goodbye Solo,” Bahrani’s third American feature, he takes the plight of the working class and sets it in his hometown. The film was shot and set in Winston-Salem, cast locally and presents a depiction of the urban South that challenges outsiders’ views of the region.
North Carolina audiences will get their first chance to see “Goodbye Solo” Saturday and Sunday at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem.
Early response to “Goodbye Solo” has been positive. Roger Ebert even called Bahrani “the new great American director” and declared to filmgoers, “Wherever you live, when this film opens, it will be the best film in town.”
“With Ebert, it’s just so different because he is a legend now, and I used to watch him on TV as a kid, which sort of adds to the mystique,” Bahrani says. “I’ve been reading his criticism for so long.”
The premise
Bahrani says “Goodbye Solo” is his most lighthearted and upbeat project, but that doesn’t mean the filmmaker has lost his edge.
The film opens in the middle of a conversation between William, an elderly Winston-Salem man (played by veteran character actor Red West) and Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané), a cab driver and Senegalese immigrant. William offers Solo a $1,000 fare for a one-way trip to the Blowing Rock tourist attraction. Solo quickly learns that William intends to commit suicide by jumping from the top.
Despite the film’s dark initial premise, Solo remains positive. He constantly cracks jokes and attempts to make William smile, all while trying to befriend the elderly man and uncover the reason why he wants to die.
“It even surprised me how much the audience laughs during the first half,” Bahrani says. “I even know some people who saw it on DVD, then saw it on the big screen and thought it was a different movie.”
Working-class heroes
Like Bahrani’s heroes in “Man Push Cart” and “Chop Shop,” Solo is a man of realistic goals.
He doesn’t seek fortune or fame but instead hopes to slightly improve his station in life by becoming a flight attendant. Minimalist aspirations such as these are uncommon among protagonists in mainstream films – doctors, adventurers, businessmen or celebrities of some sort who own expensive cars and houses and finance lifestyles most Americans could never afford. Bahrani says it is for this reason that he felt a responsibility to depict the lives of characters such as Solo and William.
“It seemed to me that a majority of people were living precariously, were living hand to mouth, were living paycheck to paycheck and that this majority of our society was never being depicted in film,” Bahrani says.
The optimistic yet reserved conclusion that Solo discovers in the final act stands in direct opposition to the rags-to-riches finale of “Slumdog Millionaire.” Bahrani deems this year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture irresponsible, considering there are 200 million people in India living in poverty and that this Hollywood fairy tale betrays the hardships of their realities for a world audience who knows little about their lives.
“There’s a responsibility when you’ve packed your bags for India and go to a country that is not yours and you’re depicting a segment of the country that no one depicts, that in fact no one in the country wants depicted — there is a moral and social responsibility here,” Bahrani says.
To better understand the realities of his main characters’ lives, Bahrani, who grew up relatively secure as the son of a doctor, spent six months to a year with people in situations similar to those of his characters in his films. The purpose, Bahrani says, is to remain as truthful as possible and not to romanticize anything or depict it dishonestly.
For “Goodbye Solo,” Bahrani shadowed the life of “O,” a real-life Senegalese cab driver in Winston-Salem who Bahrani says wishes to remain anonymous.
“I would sit in the front seat from usually 10 p.m. to 4 in the morning,” Bahrani says. “I would sit there and observe the passengers, and when it was appropriate, I would talk to the passengers, but a lot of times, I would just shut up and pay attention.”
Once Bahrani casts his films, he requires his actors to do the same, as well.
For “Goodbye Solo,” Souléymane Sy Savané, a former model from Senegal whom Bahrani discovered during a casting session in New York, lived with the filmmaker at his brother’s house in Winston-Salem for three months before filming began. During this time, Savané learned the business of driving a real taxi and met real cab drivers.
“He also didn’t know how to drive. He lied to me and said that he did, but he didn’t have a driver’s license,” Bahrani says, laughing. “It wasn’t until when he got here that I realized he was an awful driver.
“When we were finished shooting, he finally admitted that he didn’t have a driver’s license when we cast him for the part.”
A new South in cinema
Bahrani’s vision of the South is not a place of dirt roads or wooden churches.
Instead, he and cinematographer Michael Simmonds show viewers what anyone would see if they drove through Winston-Salem: city streets crowded with restaurants and fast-food joints; the decaying remnants of a waning industry; and, of course, Interstate 40.
“What’s specific about Winston-Salem is the rolling hills, which are interesting but extremely difficult for a camera to catch,” says Simmonds, who has worked with Bahrani on all three of his American films.
But what makes the portrayal of the South in “Goodbye Solo” so unique is its depiction of a growing multiethnic community. Solo is part of a network of immigrants that includes his Hispanic wife and stepdaughter, as well as various workers in the service industry. That combined with Solo’s constant smile and upbeat demeanor allows him to make friends all over town, an advantage the American-born William does not share.
“William’s life is worse than Solo’s; he’s more of an outsider than Solo is,” Bahrani says. “Solo seems to know everyone in town and is friends with everyone. William doesn’t seem to know anyone in town and is more alienated than anyone in the film, even though he’s from the South.”
The filmmaker believes the world Solo lives in is consistent with the change he has witnessed taking place in the South, especially during the past decade.
“When I was growing up in North Carolina, it was me and my brother walking around in Hanes Mall, and then everyone else was white and a handful of black people,” Bahrani says. “Now, when I walk into Hanes Mall, I see Indian, Asian, Hispanic, black, white – there’s just so many different kinds of people now.”
For his next film project, Bahrani has two ideas he’s considering but intends to stay mum on what they are about for now.
However, between living in Winston-Salem and New York City, where he’s an adjunct filmmaking professor at Columbia University, he has recently traveled in the West to do research for his next film.
He also says the last film he really enjoyed was the John Wayne classic “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.”
Does that mean his next film –– which could potentially be the $10 million period film he mentioned earlier –– be a Western?
“It is going to be different,” Bahrani says. “It’s not going to be like a Western you’ve seen before.”
Contact Joe Scott at movieshowjoe@gmail.com.
