Analysis
Kiarostami's three films are poised between fiction and real life, opening the medium to new formal experiences. They are among his most acclaimed work. [3]
Adrian Martin emphasises Kiarostami's direct perception of the world and identifies his cinema as being "diagrammatical". Literal "diagrams" inscribed in the landscape, such as the famous zigzagging pathway in the "Koker Trilogy", indicate a "geometry of forces of life and of the world". For Martin, these forces are neither complete order, nor complete chaos but rather what lies between these poles. [4]
The village is left to its own devices after the earthquake and has gone through a lot of change in the last three decades. However, it is still considered an attraction for film lovers and cineastes all around the world. [5]
Abbas Kiarostami was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker trilogy (1987–1994), Close-Up (1990), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), and Taste of Cherry (1997), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year. In later works, Certified Copy (2010) and Like Someone in Love (2012), he filmed for the first time outside Iran: in Italy and Japan, respectively. His films Where Is the Friend's Home? (1987), Close-Up, and The Wind Will Carry Us were ranked among the 100 best foreign films in a 2018 critics' poll by BBC Culture. Close-Up was also ranked one of the 50 greatest movies of all time in the famous decennial Sight & Sound poll conducted in 2012.
The cinema of Iran, or of Persia, refers to the film industry in Iran. In particular, Iranian art films have garnered international recognition. Iranian films are usually written and spoken in the Persian language.
Jafar Panâhi is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly associated with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved international recognition with his feature film debut, The White Balloon (1995). The film won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the first major award an Iranian film won at Cannes.
Taste of Cherry is a 1997 Iranian minimalist drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Abbas Kiarostami, and starring Homayoun Ershadi as a middle-aged Tehran man who drives through a city suburb in search of someone willing to carry out the task of burying him after he commits suicide. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, which it shared with The Eel.
Close-Up is a 1990 Iranian docufiction written, directed and edited by Abbas Kiarostami. The film tells the story of the real-life trial of a man who impersonated film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, conning a family into believing they would star in his new film. It features the people involved, acting as themselves. A film about human identity, it helped to increase recognition of Kiarostami internationally.
And Life Goes On is a 1992 Iranian film directed by Abbas Kiarostami. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. It is considered the second film in Kiarostami's Koker trilogy.
The Wind Will Carry Us is a 1999 Iranian film written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami. The title is a reference to a poem written by the modern Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad. In the film, a journalist posing as a city engineer arrives in a Kurdish village to document the locals' mourning rituals that anticipate the death of an old woman. However, she remains alive, and the journalist is forced to slow down and appreciate the lifestyle of the village.
Homayoun Ershadi is an Iranian actor, known for his debut role in Taste of Cherry (1997), and several Iranian and other films since then, including Hollywood movies The Kite Runner and Zero Dark Thirty.
Where Is the Friend's House? is a 1987 Iranian drama film written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami. The plot depicts a conscientious schoolboy's attempt to return his friend's school notebook to his home in a neighboring village, to prevent the friend from being expelled if he fails to hand it in the next day. The film, whose title derives from a poem by Sohrab Sepehri, is the first installment in Kiarostami's Koker trilogy, followed by And Life Goes On and Through the Olive Trees, all of which take place in Koker, Iran.
Through the Olive Trees is a 1994 Iranian drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. The final part of Kiarostami's Koker trilogy, the plot, set in earthquake-ravaged Northern Iran, revolves around the production of the second film; And Life Goes On..., which itself was a revisitation of the first film - Where Is the Friend's Home?.
Homework is a 1989 Iranian narrative documentary film written, directed and edited by Abbas Kiarostami.
Koker is a small mud-brick village in Rudbar County, Gilan province, Iran. In the early 1990s the well-known Koker trilogy of films, directed by Abbas Kiarostami, were filmed in the village, which was devastated by the 1990 earthquake.
The 1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake occurred on Thursday, 21 June 1990 at in the Caspian Sea region of northern Iran. The shock had a moment magnitude of 7.4 and a Mercalli Intensity of X (Extreme). Devastation occurred in a 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi) area, causing extensive damage in several cities. A large aftershock also added to the destruction. Between 35,000 and 50,000 people died in the earthquake; another 60,000–105,000 were injured.
Iranian New Wave refers to a movement in Iranian cinema. It started in 1964 with Hajir Darioush's second film Serpent's Skin, which was based on D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover featuring Fakhri Khorvash and Jamshid Mashayekhi. Darioush's two important early social documentaries But Problems Arose in 1965, dealing with the cultural alienation of the Iranian youth, and Face 75, a critical look at the westernization of the rural culture, which was a prizewinner at the 1965 Berlin Film Festival, also contributed significantly to the establishment of the New Wave. In 1968, after the release of Shohare Ahoo Khanoom directed by Davoud Mollapour, The Cow directed by Dariush Mehrjui followed by Masoud Kimiai's Qeysar in 1969, Nasser Taqvai's Tranquility in the Presence of Others, and immediately followed by Bahram Beyzai's Downpour, the New Wave became well established as a prominent cultural, dynamic and intellectual trend. The Iranian viewer became discriminating, encouraging the new trend to prosper and develop.
The Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami is known for uses of certain themes and cinematic techniques that are instantly recognizable in his work, from the use of child protagonists and stories that take place in rural villages, to conversations that unfold inside cars utilizing stationary mounted cameras. He often undertook a documentary style of filmmaking within narrative works, and frequently employs contemporary Iranian poetry in dialogue, movie titles, and in the thematic elements of his pictures.
Shirin is a 2008 Iranian drama film directed by Abbas Kiarostami. The film is considered by some critics as a notable twist in the artistic career of Kiarostami.
Certified Copy is a 2010 art film written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami. Set in Tuscany, the film focuses on a British writer and a French antiques dealer, whose relationship undergoes an odd transformation over the course of a day. The film was a French-majority production, with co-producers in Italy and Belgium. The dialogue is in English, French and Italian.
The 21st Busan International Film Festival was held from October 6 to October 15, 2016 at the Busan Cinema Center and was hosted by Sol Kyung-gu and Han Hyo-joo. A total of 301 films from 69 countries were screened at the festival, including 96 world premieres and 27 international premieres.
Minimalist cinema is related to the art and philosophy of minimalism.
