Abbas Kiarostami Movies
One of the most visionary figures in international cinema, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami makes films that both challenge viewers' expectations of modern filmmaking and expound a deeply humanist philosophy. Using a deceptive simplicity to explore very complex issues, Kiarostami stresses the importance of material over technique. Taking his inspiration and story ideas from the people around him and the observations of everyday life, and stressing a natural, improvisational approach from his actors, he has said, "I think that technique for technique's sake is a big lie, as it doesn't answer real feelings and real needs."Born in Tehran on June 22, 1940, Kiarostami made his directing and screenwriting debut in 1970 with Nan va Koutcheh/The Bread and Alley. He first earned international acclaim and recognition in 1987 with Where is the Friend's Home?, the story of a child's self-imposed journey to find his friend's house so he can give him a lost notebook full of important homework. Stressing a natural approach to his material and building his film on endless repetition, Kiarostami succeeded in making a film from a child's point of view that refused to adopt the condescending, cutesy tone of most films made about children, and he earned kudos for his work.
Kiarostami next won acclaim for Through the Olive Trees, which was screened in competition at the 1994 Cannes Festival. A blend of documentary and fictional drama, it was set in a Northern Iranian town that had recently been hit by an earthquake and was the third in the director's cycle of films, following Where is the Friend's House and And Life Goes On. In keeping with the style of his previous films, Kiarostami used a straightforward approach without frills or flourishes, encouraging an interactive reaction from his audience by leaving the end of his story -- which in part revolved around a man's pursuit of a woman who keeps rejecting him -- without resolution, and therefore open to interpretation.
Kiarostami's next major project was more of a lighthearted affair: he produced the script for Jafar Panahi's The White Balloon (1995), a children's film told from the point of view of a young girl searching a marketplace to buy a goldfish in time for New Year's Eve. With A Taste of Cherry two years later, however, he was back to a more serious meditation on life, death, and all that falls in between. The film, with its lack of resolution or reasons for the decision of the protagonist to attempt suicide, invited the same kind of interaction from the audience as Through the Olive Trees. It was embraced enthusiastically by an international audience, co-winning the Cannes Festival's Palme d'Or. Further acclaim greeted Kiarostami's next effort, The Wind Will Carry Us (1999). Another unconventional meditation on everyday life rooted in a humanist philosophy, it won the Golden Lion at that year's Venice Film Festival.
In the following years Kiarostami scripted such efforts as Willow and Wind (1999) and the short A Good, Good Citizen (1999) before returning to the director's chair with ABC Africa (2001), a compelling documentary concerning the AIDS crisis in Uganda. In 2002 Kiarostami pulled double duty as the screenwriter and director of the Golden Palm nominated drama Ten. Focusing on ten conversations with women at crucial tuning points in their lives, the film proved the perfect showcase for Kiarostami's intimate style by discussing issues generally ignored in Iranian cinema. After earning a story credit for the 2002 drama The Deserted Station, Kiarostami continued his examination of the middle class with his script for Crimson Gold - the deliberate and elegiac story of an overweight man struggling to find his footing in contemporary Iran. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 1987
- NR
The film that established director Abbas Kiarostami's reputation outside his native Iran, Where Is the Friend's Home? tells a simple story in such a spare fashion, many critics found its impact to be almost subliminal. As the film opens Ahmed (Ahmed Ahmed Poor), a grade schooler, watches as his teacher (Kheda Barech Defai) berates a fellow student, Mohammed (Babek Ahmed Poor), for repeatedly failing to use his notebook for his homework , threatening expulsion on the next offense. When Ahmed returns home, he realizes he's accidentally taken Mohammed's notebook. Against his mother's orders, he sets out in search Mohammed's house, encountering false leads, dead ends, and distractions as he attempts to enlist adults in his search. ~ Keith Phipps, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ahmed Ahmed Poor, Babek Ahmed Poor, (more)
- 1989
In this documentary, Iranian schoolboys complain about the amount of homework they have to do. This would not seem to be a particularly harsh criticism of the Iranian school system, but evidently the nation's educational authorities thought otherwise, and held up the film's release. Also highlighted are shots of kids larking around a bit during obligatory prayer sessions. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
This Iranian film qualifies as a docudrama, and makes some telling comments on society as it tells its tale. In the story, Ali Sabzian, in a fit of whimsey, claims to a fellow passenger on the bus that he is the famous Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. So far, so good, but he then becomes involved with his fellow passenger and her family, claiming that he has cast the family's son in a major role and that the setting he intends to use is their home. At some point this tale comes unravelled, and the family takes him to court. A well-meaning judge persuades the family to drop the charges against this unemployed man. Ironically, while Ali is on trial, the maker of this current film (Abbas Kiarostami) decides to film the procedings, and also stages a reconstruction of the events leading up to the trial, using all the actual participants, but has the restaged trial end less happily. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hossein Sabzian
- 1992
The thin distinction between fiction and reality comes in for some blurring in this fact-based near-documentary. Learning of a major earthquake, the director of a children's movie, Where Is My Friend's Home?, is worried about two of his performers in that film. He sets out with his son to interview the survivors and learn the fate of his two acquaintances. However, he hires locals to play himself and his son and hires local earthquake survivors to play other earthquake survivors. When his alter-egos discover the actors, they are two people who have been hired to impersonate the two men. Even though every story told by the filmmaker is accurate, as are the settings and scenes of devastation, everything is just one step away from reality. Even unsympathetic reviewers saw some saving grace in this self-conscious posturing, in that it is aware of itself; as one old man says: "They told me to say this was my house, but my real home was destroyed in the quake." In addition to coy games played with reality, the film is a moving testament to the will to survive and get on with life, as it shows refugees crowded into a tent to cheer a soccer game being shown on television. Director Abbas Kiarostami has explored the blurred line between fiction and reality before in his well-received film Close-Up, a true story about a man who was arrested for impersonating a movie director, featuring all the real-life participants in a slightly fictionalized re-telling of the events. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1994
- G
This Iranian movie about making movies wavers between a documentary and a fictional drama. It is the third in director Abbas Kiarostami's cycle of films that include Where Is My Friend's Home? and And Life Goes On. Like the others, this film is also set in northern Iran. An actor playing the director, tells the audience that he will be the only professional actor in the film. The Director selects a young woman, Tahereh, who was recently orphaned in the last earthquake to play the heroine. Mrs. Shivas, the non-nonsense assistant director keeps the actors on task and focused. She is especially picky about the appearance of Tahereh. Mrs. Shiva is assigned to prepare crew member Hossein to play the new hero. Trouble ensues because Tahereh has recently rejected Hossein's advances because he is poor and illiterate. She refuses to speak to him on camera or off. Hossein talks to the Director who subsequently changes the story; the two are now married. Hossein is a naturally gifted actor, but Tahereh cannot distinguish her role from reality and refuses to speak her lines. The Director changes the story again. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hossein Rezai, Tahereh Ladanian, (more)
- 1994
- PG
This provocative Iranian drama explores the notions of personal responsibility and the psychological effects of war. The story begins in the very recent past during an air raid on Teheran. A middle-class family is desperately trying to flee the beleaguered city and the father ends up running another car off the road. They are horrified, but the next morning, when they safely awaken in their country home, the horror seems like it belongs to another lifetime. Though they revel in the pastoral beauty and peacefulness of their new life away from the war torn city, there is an inescapably dark underpinning to their life and as time passes the father becomes increasingly burdened with feelings of guilt. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1995
- NR
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Pinahi's debut feature The White Balloon tells the story of Razieh (Aida Mohammadkhani), a seven-year-old girl intent on buying a new goldfish in time for Tehran's annual New Year's Day festivities (in Iranian culture, the goldfish is a symbol of life). Upon badgering her mother into giving her a 500-toman banknote, Razieh heads off to the marketplace alone; it is her first real experience away from her parents' watchful eyes, and the excitement and wonder she feels is palpable. Told in real time, the film's sensitive portrayal of Razieh's wide-eyed misadventures superbly conveys the impact which an otherwise unremarkable chain of events can indelibly leave upon the life of a child. Her struggle to prove her independence is dramatically undercut when she loses the banknote not once but twice, but her spirit and ingenuity nevertheless remain indefatigable. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Aida Mohammadkhani, Mohsen Kalifi, (more)
- 1995
This French anthology is a tribute to A Propos de Nice (1930), a classic documentary that took a poetic and sometimes satirical look at life in the French Riviera town. This version blends fact and fiction to chronicle life in modern-day Nice and is comprised of seven vignettes, each directed by an internationally renowned filmmaker. Only one of the episodes, "Reperages," from Iranian directors Abbas Kiarostami and Parviz Kimiavi, stays close to the style of the original film by Jean Vigo as it chronicles the experiences of a filmmaker who came to Nice to do research on Vigo for his upcoming documentary. A different episode eavesdrops upon a man and two women discussing sociopolitical concerns as they lie indolently on the beach. In another, a photojournalist cruises the city's lively Promenade des Anglais. In a silent vignette, "Nice, Very Nice," a young killer is seen gliding through a crowd of carnival goers on the way to perform a hit. The other three cover subjects ranging from the history of Nice, to a political rally, to a portrait of the city as a popular spot for different kinds of rendezvous. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Co-winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, The Taste of Cherry is the venerable Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's examination of life, death and the small miracles in between. Homayoun Ershadi stars as Mr. Badii, a middle-aged man wishing to kill himself; driving his Range Rover across the arid outskirts of Tehran, he searches for someone to aid him in his final hours, someone who will agree to bury his body if he succeeds in his mission -- a planned overdose of sleeping pills -- or rescue him if he fails. Offering a large sum of money in exchange for services rendered, he first picks up a Kurdish soldier who ultimately flees in fear upon learning of Badii's plan; the next passenger, an Afghani seminary student, instead attempts to convince him of the sanctity of human life. Finally, Badii picks up a Turkish taxidermist who reluctantly agrees to check the body for signs of life; having long ago contemplated suicide himself, the taxidermist also tries to dissuade Badii from ending it all, accepting the offer only because he needs the money to care for his sick daughter. Kiarostami's refusal to answer the film's two most obvious questions -- exactly why does Mr. Badii wish to end his life, and does he successfully carry out his plan? -- invites viewers to share in his protagonist's plight by triggering their own powers of imagination. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
- Starring:
- Homayoun Ershadi
This idiosyncratic drama from Iran begins as a jeep winds through the hills of Kurdistan, containing an engineer (Behzad Dourani) and his two assistants (whom we never see) as they search for a small village in the mountains. When they arrive, they are greeted by a young boy, who shows them a place they can stay and guides the engineer to the home of an old woman (also never seen) who seems to be dying. No one is sure what the engineer and his men are doing there; some locals think he's keeping watch of the old woman and wants to purchase her land when she dies, while others think he could be an archeologist searching for rare artifacts. Meanwhile, the engineer spends his days exploring the village and the people who live there -- most of them women, with the men away at jobs that occupy them night and day for several months out of the year. He also stays in touch with the boy, who watches over the old woman's health while keeping up with his schoolwork, working on his family's farm, and helping his mother with the household chores. Meanwhile, the engineer periodically gets calls on his cellular phone, which require him to drive to a graveyard on a hill to receive the call (most, however, are wrong numbers), while making contact with a man digging a deep hole (also unseen) and a girl in the village who milk's cows which are kept in a dark basement. Concentrating on what we don't see as often as what we do, Le Vent Nous Emportera bears the distinctive stamp of director Abbas Kiarostami and was embraced by critics in its screening at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Behzad Dourani
- 2000
In the wake of the fundamentalist revolution that overtook Iran in 1979, the last thing most people would have expected was for the nation to spawn one of the world's most interesting national cinemas. But such Iranian films as The Taste of Cherry, The Children of Heaven, and The White Balloon have won enthusiastic acclaim at a number of international film festivals and impressed filmgoers around the globe. Friendly Persuasion: Iranian Cinema After the Revolution is a documentary that examines the new Iranian cinema, as such filmmakers as Abbas Kiarostami, Majid Majidi, Jafar Panahi, Moshen Makhmalbaf, and Dariush Mehrjui discuss the new renaissance in their nation's cinema, and how they've learned to wring creative mileage out of the often tricky details of working around their government's severe censorship laws. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, (more)
- 2000
Owing a rather sizable debt to Abbas Kiarostami, who provided its screenplay, Willow and Wind follows the travails of Kuchakpour, an Iranian boy who must replace a school window he broke while playing soccer. If he doesn't find the money to pay for the window by the end of the day, he will be expelled, so he sets off on his mission with equal parts resentment and determination. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hadi Alipour, Amir Janfada, (more)
Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has often concerned himself with children striving to make the best of difficult circumstances, and this documentary finds him capturing a real-life corollary to the fictional tales of his best-known work. At the request of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development, Kiarostami traveled to Africa to make a film about the work of the Uganda Women's Effort to Save Orphans, a volunteer group established to provide food, shelter, and care for the more than one-and-a-half-million children left to fend for themselves in a nation torn apart by war, poverty, and the AIDS epidemic. While Kiarostami's first visit was planned so he could see the country and map out what he would film, he brought along some digital video equipment, and upon arrival, he was so struck by what he saw that he immediately began to record the events around him, in which the tragedies of this struggling nation were contrasted with the warmth and boundless optimism of the children looking for a better life. ABC Africa received its North American premiere at the 2001 DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Abbas Kiarostami
Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami uses the casual setting of one woman's automobile as the setting for a subtle but potent look at gender issues in the Middle East. Mania Akbari plays a nameless woman who, over the course of several days, gives a number of friends, family members, and acquaintances a ride in her car across town, among them her young son who is still upset over his parent's recent divorce; her sister; a close friend who has just been abandoned by her boyfriend; an older woman on her way to a worship service; another friend soon to be married; and a veteran streetwalker. As the woman and her passengers ride through Tehran, their conversations cast a light on her views of herself, as well as the ways other women view themselves and the larger world around them. Director Kiarostami shot Ten using two small digital video cameras, one of which was mounted on the car's dashboard, the other in a fixed position in the back seat, using this purposefully stark approach to keep the focus on the characters and their ideas. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mania Akbari, Amin Maher, (more)
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