Abbas Kiarostami

"Kiarostami" redirects here. For the surname, seeKiarostami (surname).

Abbas Kiarostami
عباس کیارستمی
Kiarostami in 2013
Born	(1940-06-22)22 June 1940 Tehran,Imperial State of Iran
Died	4 July 2016(2016-07-04)(aged 76) Paris,France
Burial place	Tok Mazra'eh Cemetery,Lavasan,Shemiranat, Iran
Alma mater	University of Tehran
Occupations	Filmmaker photographer producer painter poet
Years active	1962–2016
Notable work	Where Is the Friend's Home? Close-Up Through the Olive Trees Taste of Cherry The Wind Will Carry Us
Style	Documentary minimalism poetry film
Movement	Iranian New Wave
Spouse	Parvin Amir-Gholi ​ ​ (m.1969;div.1982)​
Children	Ahmad Bahman
Signature

Abbas Kiarostami(Persian:عباس کیارستمی[ʔæbˌbɒːskijɒːɾostæˈmi];22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) 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, includingshortsand documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing theKoker trilogy(1987–1994),Close-Up(1990),The Wind Will Carry Us(1999), andTaste of Cherry(1997), which was awarded thePalme d'Orat theCannes Film Festival that year.In later works,Certified Copy(2010) andLike Someone in Love(2012), he filmed for the first time outside Iran: in Italy and Japan, respectively. His filmsWhere Is the Friend's Home?(1987),Close-Up,andThe Wind Will Carry Uswere ranked among the 100 best foreign films in a 2018 critics' poll byBBCCulture.Close-Upwas also ranked one of the 50 greatest movies of all time in the famous decennialSight & Soundpoll conducted in 2012.

Kiarostami had worked extensively as ascreenwriter,film editor,art director,and producer and had designed credit titles and publicity material. He was also a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator, andgraphic designer.He was part of a generation of filmmakers in theIranian New Wave,aPersian cinemamovement that started in the late 1960s and emphasized the use of poetic dialogue and allegorical storytelling dealing with political and philosophical issues.

Kiarostami had a reputation for using child protagonists, for documentary-style narrative films,for stories that take place in rural villages, and for conversations that unfold inside cars, using stationary mounted cameras. He is also known for his use ofPersian poetryin the dialogue, titles, and themes of his films. Kiarostami's films contain a notable degree of ambiguity, an unusual mixture of simplicity and complexity, and often a mix of fictional and documentary elements. The concepts of change and continuity, in addition to the themes of life and death, play a major role in Kiarostami's works.

Early life and background

Kiarostami majored in painting and graphic design at theUniversity of TehranCollege of Fine arts.

Kiarostami was born inTehran.His first artistic experience was painting, which he continued into his late teens, winning a painting competition at the age of 18 shortly before he left home to study at theUniversity of TehranSchool of Fine Arts.He majored in painting and graphic design and supported his studies by working as a traffic policeman.

As a painter, designer, and illustrator, Kiarostami worked in advertising in the 1960s, designingpostersand creating commercials. Between 1962 and 1966, he shot around 150 advertisements for Iranian television. In the late 1960s, he began creating credit titles for films (includingGheysarbyMasoud Kimiai) and illustrating children's books.

Film career

See also:Abbas Kiarostami filmography

1970s

In 1970 when theIranian New Wavebegan withDariush Mehrjui's filmGāv,Kiarostami helped set up a filmmaking department at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanun) in Tehran. Its debut production, and Kiarostami's first film, was the twelve-minuteThe Bread and Alley(1970), aneo-realisticshort film about a schoolboy's confrontation with an aggressive dog.Breaktimefollowed in 1972. The department became one of Iran's most noted film studios, producing not only Kiarostami's films but acclaimed Persian films such asThe RunnerandBashu, the Little Stranger.

In the 1970s, Kiarostami pursued anindividualisticstyle of film making.When discussing his first film, he stated:

Bread and Alleywas my first experience in cinema and I must say a very difficult one. I had to work with a very young child, a dog, and an unprofessional crew except for the cinematographer, who was nagging and complaining all the time. Well, the cinematographer, in a sense, was right because I did not follow the conventions of film making that he had become accustomed to.

FollowingThe Experience(1973), Kiarostami releasedThe Traveler(Mossafer) in 1974.The Travelertells the story of Qassem Julayi, a troubled and troublesome boy from a small Iranian city. Intent on attending a football match in far-off Tehran, he scams his friends and neighbors to raise money, and journeys to the stadium in time for the game, only to meet with an ironic twist of fate. In addressing the boy's determination to reach his goal, alongside his indifference to the effects of his amoral actions, the film examined human behavior and the balance of right and wrong. It furthered Kiarostami's reputation forrealism,diegeticsimplicity, and stylistic complexity, as well as his fascination with physical and spiritual journeys.

In 1975, Kiarostami directed two short filmsSo Can IandTwo Solutions for One Problem.In early 1976, he releasedColors,followed by the fifty-four-minute filmA Wedding Suit,a story about three teenagers coming into conflict over a suit for a wedding.

Kiarostami in 1977

Kiarostami then directedReport(1977). With a 112-minute runtime, it was considerably longer than his previous work. The film revolved around the life of atax collectoraccused of accepting bribes; suicide was among its themes. In 1979, he produced and directedFirst Case, Second Case.

1980s

In the early 1980s, Kiarostami directed several short films includingToothache(1980),Orderly or Disorderly(1981), andThe Chorus(1982). In 1983, he directedFellow Citizen.It was not until his release ofWhere Is the Friend's Home?(1987) that he began to gain recognition outside Iran.These films created the basis of his later productions.

The film tells a simple account of a conscientious eight-year-old schoolboy's quest to return his friend's notebook in a neighboring village lest his friend be expelled from school. The traditional beliefs of Iranian rural people are portrayed. The film has been noted for its poetic use of the Iranian rural landscape and its realism, both important elements of Kiarostami's work. Kiarostami made the film from a child's point of view.

Where Is the Friend's Home?,And Life Goes On(1992) (also known asLife and Nothing More), andThrough the Olive Trees(1994) are described by critics as theKoker trilogy,because all three films feature the village ofKokerin northern Iran. The films also relate to the1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake,in which 40,000 people died. Kiarostami uses the themes of life, death, change, and continuity to connect the films. The trilogy was successful in France in the 1990s and other Western European countries such as theNetherlands,Sweden, Germany andFinland.But, Kiarostami did not consider the three films to comprise a trilogy. He suggested that the last two titles plusTaste of Cherry(1997) comprise a trilogy, given their common theme of the preciousness of life.In 1987, Kiarostami was involved in the screenwriting ofThe Key,which he edited but did not direct. In 1989, he releasedHomework.

1990s

Kiarostami directing a film

Kiarostami's first film of the decade wasClose-Up(1990), which narrates the story of the real-life trial of a man who impersonated film-makerMohsen Makhmalbaf,conning a family into believing they would star in his new film. The family suspects theft as the motive for this charade, but the impersonator, Hossein Sabzian, argues that his motives were more complex. The part-documentary, part-staged film examines Sabzian's moral justification for usurping Makhmalbaf's identity, questioning his ability to sense his cultural and artistic flair.Ranked No. 42 inBritish Film Institute'sThe Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time,Close-Upreceived praise from directors such asQuentin Tarantino,Martin Scorsese,Werner Herzog,Jean-Luc Godard,andNanni Morettiand was released across Europe.

In 1992, Kiarostami directedLife, and Nothing More...,regarded by critics as the second film of theKoker trilogy.The film follows a father and his young son as they drive from Tehran to Koker in search of two young boys who they fear might have perished in the 1990 earthquake. As the father and son travel through the devastated landscape, they meet earthquake survivors forced to carry on with their lives amid disaster. That year Kiarostami won aPrix Roberto Rossellini,the first professional film award of his career, for his direction of the film. The last film of the so-calledKoker trilogywasThrough the Olive Trees(1994), which expands a peripheral scene fromLife and Nothing Moreinto the central drama. Critics such asAdrian Martinhave called the style of filmmaking in theKoker trilogyas "diagrammatical", linking the zig-zagging patterns in the landscape and the geometry of forces of life and the world.A flashback of the zigzag path inLife and Nothing More...(1992) in turn triggers the spectator's memory of the previous film,Where Is the Friend's Home?from 1987, shot before the earthquake. This symbolically links to the post-earthquake reconstruction inThrough the Olive Treesin 1994. In 1995,Miramax FilmsreleasedThrough the Olive Treesin the US theaters.

Kiarostami next wrote the screenplays forThe JourneyandThe White Balloon(1995), for his former assistantJafar Panahi.Between 1995 and 1996, he was involved in the production ofLumière and Company,a collaboration with 40 other film directors.

Kiarostami won thePalme d'Or(Golden Palm) award at theCannes Film FestivalforTaste of Cherry.It is the drama of a man, Mr. Badii, determined to commit suicide. The film involved themes such as morality, the legitimacy of the act of suicide, and the meaning of compassion.

Kiarostami directedThe Wind Will Carry Usin 1999, which won the Grand Jury Prize (Silver Lion) at theVenice International Film Festival.The film contrasted rural and urban views on thedignity of labor,addressing themes of gender equality and the benefits of progress, by means of a stranger's sojourn in a remoteKurdishvillage.An unusual feature of the movie is that many of the characters are heard but not seen; at least thirteen to fourteen speaking characters in the film are never seen.

2000s

In 2000, at theSan Francisco Film Festivalaward ceremony, Kiarostami was awarded theAkira KurosawaPrize for lifetime achievement in directing, but surprised everyone by giving it away to veteran Iranian actorBehrooz Vossoughifor his contribution to Iranian cinema.

In 2001, Kiarostami and his assistant, Seifollah Samadian, traveled toKampala,Ugandaat the request of the United NationsInternational Fund for Agricultural Development,to film a documentary about programs assisting Ugandan orphans. He stayed for ten days and madeABC Africa.The trip was originally intended as research in preparation for the filming, but Kiarostami ended up editing the entire film from the video footage shot there.The high number of orphans in Uganda has resulted from the deaths of parents in theAIDS epidemic.

Time Outeditor andNational Film Theatrechief programmer, Geoff Andrew, said in referring to the film: "Like his previous four features, this film is not about death but life-and-death: how they're linked, and what attitude we might adopt with regard to their symbiotic inevitability."

The following year, Kiarostami directedTen,revealing an unusual method of filmmaking and abandoning many scriptwriting conventions.Kiarostami focused on the socio-political landscape of Iran. The images are seen through the eyes of one woman as she drives through the streets of Tehran over a period of several days. Her journey is composed of ten conversations with various passengers, which include her sister, a hitchhiking prostitute, and a jilted bride and her demanding young son. This style of filmmaking was praised by a number of critics.

A. O. ScottinThe New York Timeswrote that Kiarostami, "in addition to being perhaps the most internationally admired Iranian filmmaker of the past decade, is also among the world masters of automotive cinema...He understands the automobile as a place of reflection, observation and, above all, talk."

In 2003, Kiarostami directedFive,a poetic feature with no dialogue or characterization. It consists of five long shots of nature which are single-take sequences, shot with a hand-heldDVcamera, along the shores of theCaspian Sea.Although the film lacks a clear storyline, Geoff Andrew argues that the film is "more than just pretty pictures". He adds, "Assembled in order, they comprise a kind of abstract or emotional narrative arc, which moves evocatively from separation and solitude to community, from motion to rest, near-silence to sound and song, light to darkness and back to light again, ending on a note of rebirth and regeneration." He notes the degree of artifice concealed behind the apparent simplicity of the imagery.

In 2005, Kiarostami contributed the central section toTickets,aportmanteau filmset on a train traveling through Italy. The other segments were directed byKen LoachandErmanno Olmi.

In 2008, Kiarostami directed the featureShirin,which features close-ups of many notable Iranian actresses and the French actressJuliette Binocheas they watch a film based on a partly mythologicalPersianromance tale ofKhosrow and Shirin,with themes of female self-sacrifice.The film has been described as "a compelling exploration of the relationship between image, sound and female spectatorship."

That summer, he directedWolfgang Amadeus Mozart's operaCosì fan tutteconducted byChristophe RoussetatFestival d'Aix-en-Provencestarring withWilliam Shimell.But the following year's performances at theEnglish National Operawas impossible to direct because of refusal of permission to travel abroad.

2010s

Kiarostami in 2015

Certified Copy(2010), again starring Juliette Binoche, was made in Tuscany and was Kiarostami's first film to be shot and produced outside Iran.The story of an encounter between a British man and a French woman, it was entered in competition for thePalme d'Orin the2010 Cannes Film Festival.Peter BradshawofThe Guardiandescribes the film as an "intriguing oddity", and said, "Certified Copyis the deconstructed portrait of a marriage, acted with well-intentioned fervour by Juliette Binoche, but persistently baffling, contrived, and often simply bizarre – a highbrow misfire of the most peculiar sort. "He concluded that the film is "unmistakably an example of Kiarostami's compositional technique, though not a successful example."Roger Ebert,however, praised the film, noting that "Kiarostami is rather brilliant in the way he creates offscreen spaces."Binoche won theBest Actress Awardat Cannes for her performance in the film. Kiarostami's penultimate film,Like Someone in Love,set and shot in Japan, received largely positive reviews from critics.

Kiarostami's final film24 Frameswas released posthumously in 2017. Anexperimental filmbased on 24 of Kiarostami's still photographs,24 Framesenjoyed a highly positive critical reception, with aRotten Tomatoesscore of 92%.

Film festival work

Kiarostami was a jury member at numerous film festivals, most notably theCannes Film Festivalin1993,2002and2005.He was also the president of theCaméra d'OrJury in Cannes Film Festival 2005. He was announced as the president of the Cinéfondation and short film sections of the2014 Cannes Film Festival.

Other representatives include theVenice Film Festivalin 1985, theLocarno International Film Festivalin 1990, theSan Sebastian International Film Festivalin 1996, theSão Paulo International Film Festivalin 2004, the Capalbio Cinema Festival in 2007 (in which he was president of the jury), and theKüstendorf Film and Music Festivalin 2011.He also made regular appearances at many other film festivals across Europe, including theEstoril Film Festivalin Portugal.

Cinematic style

Main article:Cinematic style of Abbas Kiarostami

Individualism

Though Kiarostami has been compared toSatyajit Ray,Vittorio De Sica,Éric Rohmer,andJacques Tati,his films exhibit a singular style, often employing techniques of his own invention.

During the filming ofThe Bread and Alleyin 1970, Kiarostami had major differences with his experiencedcinematographerabout how to film the boy and the attacking dog. While the cinematographer wanted separate shots of the boy approaching, aclose-upof his hand as he enters the house and closes the door, followed by a shot of the dog, Kiarostami believed that if the three scenes could be captured as a whole it would have a more profound impact in creating tension over the situation. That one shot took around forty days to complete until Kiarostami was fully content with the scene. Kiarostami later commented that the breaking of scenes would have disrupted therhythmand content of the film's structure, preferring to let the scene flow as one.

Unlike other directors, Kiarostami showed no interest in staging extravagantcombatscenes or complicated chase scenes in large-scale productions, instead attempting to mold the medium of film to his own specifications.Kiarostami appeared to have settled on his style with theKoker trilogy,which included a myriad of references to his own film material, connecting common themes and subject matter between each of the films. Stephen Bransford has contended that Kiarostami's films do not contain references to the work of other directors, but are fashioned in such a manner that they are self-referenced. Bransford believes his films are often fashioned into an ongoing dialectic with one film reflecting on and partially demystifying an earlier film.

He continued experimenting with new modes of filming, using different directorial methods and techniques. A case in point isTen,which was filmed in a moving automobile in which Kiarostami was not present. He gave suggestions to the actors about what to do, and a camera placed on thedashboardfilmed them while they drove around Tehran.The camera was allowed to roll, capturing the faces of the people involved during their daily routine, using a series of extreme-close shots.Tenwas an experiment that used digital cameras to virtually eliminate the director. This new direction towards adigital micro-cinemais defined as a micro-budget filmmaking practice, allied with a digital production basis.

Kiarostami's cinema offers a different definition offilm.According to film professors such as Jamsheed Akrami ofWilliam Paterson University,Kiarostami consistently tried to redefine film by forcing the increased involvement of the audience. In his later years, he also progressively trimmed the timespan within his films. Akrami thinks that this reduces filmmaking from a collective endeavor to a purer, more basic form of artistic expression.

Fiction and non-fiction

Kiarostami interviewing withHabib Baviin 2013

Kiarostami's films contain a notable degree of ambiguity, an unusual mixture of simplicity and complexity, and often a mix of fictional and documentary elements (docufiction). Kiarostami has stated, "We can never get close to the truth except through lying."

The boundary between fiction and non-fiction is significantly reduced in Kiarostami's cinema.The French philosopherJean-Luc Nancy,writing about Kiarostami, and in particularLife and Nothing More...,has argued that his films are neither quite fiction nor quite documentary.Life and Nothing More...,he argues, is neither representation nor reportage, but rather"evidence":

[I]t all looks like reporting, but everything underscores (indique à l'évidence) that it is the fiction of a documentary (in fact, Kiarostami shot the film several months after the earthquake), and that it is rather a document about "fiction": not in the sense of imagining the unreal, but in the very specific and precise sense of the technique, of theartof constructing images. For the image by means of which, each time, each opens a world and precedes himself in it (s'y précède) is not pregiven (donnée toute faite) (as are those of dreams, phantasms or bad films): it is to be invented, cut and edited. Thus it isevidence,insofar as, if one day I happen tolookat my street on which I walk up and down ten times a day, I construct for an instant a newevidenceof my street.

For Jean-Luc Nancy, this notion of cinema as"evidence",rather than as documentary or imagination, is tied to the way Kiarostami deals with life-and-death (cf. the remark by Geoff Andrew onABC Africa,cited above, to the effect that Kiarostami's films are not about death but about life-and-death):

Existence resists the indifference of life-and-death, it lives beyond mechanical "life", it is always its own mourning, and its own joy. It becomes figure, image. It does not become alienated in images, but it is presented there: the images are the evidence of its existence, the objectivity of its assertion. This thought—which, for me, is the very thought of this film [Life and Nothing More...]—is a difficult thought, perhaps the most difficult. It's a slow thought, always underway, fraying a path so that the path itself becomes thought. It is that which frays images so that images become this thought, so that they become the evidence of this thought—and not to "represent" it.

In other words, wanting to accomplish more than just represent life and death as opposing forces, but rather to illustrate the way in which each element of nature is inextricably linked, Kiarostami devised a cinema that does more than just present the viewer with the documentable "facts", but neither is it simply a matter of artifice. Because"existence"means more than simply life, it is projective, containing an irreducibly fictive element, but in this "being more than" life, it is therefore contaminated by mortality. Nancy is giving a clue, in other words, toward the interpretation of Kiarostami's statement that lying is the only way to truth.

Themes of life and death

Kiarostami (left) at the Estoril Film Festival in 2010

The concepts of change and continuity, in addition to the themes of life and death, play a major role in Kiarostami's works. In theKoker trilogy,these themes play a central role. As illustrated in the aftermath of the1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquakedisaster, they also represent the power of human resilience to overcome and defy destruction.

Unlike the Koker films, which convey an instinctual thirst for survival,Taste of Cherryexplores the fragility of life and focuses on how precious it is.

Some film critics believe that the assemblage of light versus dark scenes in Kiarostami's film grammar, such as inTaste of CherryandThe Wind Will Carry Us,suggests the mutual existence of life with its endless possibilities, and death as a factual moment of anyone's life.

Poetry and imagery

Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak,of theUniversity of Maryland,argues that one aspect of Kiarostami's cinematic style is that he is able to capture the essence ofPersian poetryand create poetic imagery within the landscape of his films. In several of his movies such asWhere is the Friend's HomeandThe Wind Will Carry Us,classical Persian poetry is directly quoted in the film, highlighting the artistic link and intimate connection between them. This in turn reflects on the connection between the past and present, between continuity and change. The characters recite poems mainly from classical Persian poetOmar Khayyámor modern Persian poets such asSohrab SepehriandForough Farrokhzad.One scene inThe Wind Will Carry Ushas a long shot of a wheat field with rippling golden crops through which the doctor, accompanied by the filmmaker, is riding his scooter in a twisting road. In response to the comment that the other world is a better place than this one, the doctor recites this poem of Khayyam:

They promise ofhouriesin heaven
But I would say wine is better
Take the present to the promises
A drum sounds melodious from distance

It has been argued that the creative merit of Kiarostami's adaptation of Sohrab Sepehri and Forough Farrokhzad's poems extends the domain of textual transformation. Adaptation is defined as the transformation of a prior to a new text. Sima Daad of theUniversity of Washingtoncontends that Kiarostami's adaptation arrives at the theoretical realm of adaptation by expanding its limit from inter-textual potential to trans-generic potential.

Spirituality

Kiarostami's "complex" sound-images and philosophical approach have caused frequent comparisons with "mystical" filmmakers such asAndrei TarkovskyandRobert Bresson.While acknowledging substantial cultural differences, much of Western critical writing about Kiarostami positions him as the Iranian equivalent of such directors, by virtue of a similarly austere, "spiritual" poetics and moral commitment.Some draw parallels between certain imagery in Kiarostami's films with that ofSuficoncepts.

While most English-language writers, such as David Sterritt and the Spanish film professor Alberto Elena, interpret Kiarostami's films as spiritual, other critics, includingDavid Walshand Hamish Ford, have rated the influence of spirituality in his films as lower.

Poetry, art and photography

Installation art by Abbas Kiarostami

Kiarostami, along withJean Cocteau,Satyajit Ray,Pier Paolo Pasolini,Derek Jarman,andAlejandro Jodorowsky,was a filmmaker who expressed himself in other genres, such as poetry,set designs,painting, or photography. They expressed their interpretation of the world and their understanding of our preoccupations and identities.

Kiarostami was a noted photographer and poet. A bilingual collection of more than 200 of his poems,Walking with the Wind,was published byHarvard University Press.His photographic work includesUntitled Photographs,a collection of over thirty photographs, mostly of snow landscapes, taken in his hometown Tehran, between 1978 and 2003. In 1999, he also published a collection of his poems.Kiarostami also produced Mozart's operaCosì fan tutte,which premiered inAix-en-Provencein 2003 before being performed at theEnglish National Operain London in 2004.

Riccardo Zipoli, from theCa' Foscari University of Venice,has studied the relations and interconnections between Kiarostami's poems and his films. The results of the analysis reveal how Kiarostami's treatment of "uncertain reality" is similar in his poems and films. Kiarostami's poetry is reminiscent of the later nature poems of the Persian painter-poetSohrab Sepehri.On the other hand, the succinct allusion to philosophical truths without the need for deliberation, the non-judgmental tone of the poetic voice, and the structure of the poem—absence of personal pronouns, adverbs, or over-reliance on adjectives—as well as the lines containing akigo(Quý ngữ,a "season word" ) gives much of this poetry ahaikuesquecharacteristic.

Kiarostami's three volumes of original verse, plus his selections from classical and contemporary Persian poets, includingNima,Hafez,RumiandSaadi,were translated into English in 2015 and were published in bilingual (Persian/English) editions by Sticking Place Books in New York.

Personal life

In 1969, Kiarostami married Parvin Amir-Gholi. They had two sons, Ahmad andBahman.They divorced in 1982.

Kiarostami was one of the few directors who remained in Iran after the1979 revolution,when many of his peers fled the country. He believes that it was one of the most important decisions of his career. His permanent base in Iran and his national identity have consolidated his ability as a filmmaker:

When you take a tree that is rooted in the ground and transfer it from one place to another, the tree will no longer bear fruit. And if it does, the fruit will not be as good as it was in its original place. This is a rule of nature. I think if I had left my country, I would be the same as the tree.

Kiarostami frequently wore dark spectacles or sunglasses, which he required because of asensitivity to light.

Illness and death

In March 2016, Kiarostami was hospitalized due to intestinal bleeding and reportedly went into a comaafter undergoing two operations. Sources, including aMinistry of Health and Medical Educationspokesman, reported that Kiarostami was suffering fromgastrointestinal cancer.On 3 April 2016, Reza Paydar, the director of Kiarostami's medical team, made a statement denying that the filmmaker had cancer.However, in late June he left Iran for treatment in a Paris hospital,where he died on 4 July 2016.The week before his death, Kiarostami had been invited to join theAcademy Awardsin Hollywood as part of efforts to increase the diversity of itsOscarjudges.Ali Ahani, Iran's ambassador to France stated that Kiarostami's body would be transferred to Iran to be buried atBehesht-e Zahracemetery.However, it was later announced that his body would be buried inLavasan,a resort town about 40 km (25 mi) northeast ofTehran,based on his own will, after it was flown back to Tehran from Paris.His body was returned to Tehran'sImam Khomeini International Airporton 8 July 2016, while a crowd of Iranian film directors, actors, actresses and other artists were in Tehran airport to pay their respects.

Mohammad Shirvani,a fellow filmmaker and close friend, quoted Kiarostami on his Facebook wall on 8 June 2016: "I do not believe I could stand and direct any more films. They [the medical team] destroyed it [his digestive system]." After this comment, a campaign was set up by Iranians on both Twitter and Facebook to investigate the possibility of medical error during Kiarostami's procedure. However, Ahmad Kiarostami, his eldest son, denied any medical error in his father's treatment after Shirvani's comment and said that his father's health was no cause for alarm. After Kiarostami's death, Head of the Iranian Medical Council Dr. Alireza Zali sent a letter to his French counterpart, Patrick Bouet, urging him to send Kiarostami's medical file to Iran for further investigation.Nine days after Kiarostami's death, on 13 July 2016, his family issued a formal complaint of medical maltreatment through Kiarostami's personal doctor.Dariush Mehrjui,another famous Iranian cinema director, also criticized the medical team that treated Kiarostami and demanded legal action.

Reactions

People place candles and flowers in memorial of Kiarostami atTehran'sFerdows Garden(Cinema Museum)

Martin Scorsesesaid he was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the news.Oscar-winning Iranian film-makerAsghar Farhadi– who had been due to fly to Paris to visit his friend – said he was "very sad, in total shock".Mohsen Makhmalbafechoed the sentiment, saying Iran's cinema owes its global reputation to his fellow director, but that this visibility did not translate into greater visibility for his work in his homeland. "Kiarostami gave the Iranian cinema the international credibility that it has today," he toldThe Guardian."But his films were unfortunately not seen as much in Iran. He changed the world's cinema; he freshened it and humanized it in contrast with Hollywood's rough version."Persian mystic and poetJalal al-Din Rumi's 22nd niece Esin Celebi also expressed her condolences over the demise of Kiarostami in a separate message. Iran's representative office at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,UNESCOalso opened a memorial book for signature to honour Kiarostami.

Iranian PresidentHassan Rouhanisaid on Twitter that the director's "different and profound attitude towards life and his invitation to peace and friendship" would be a "lasting achievement".Foreign MinisterMohammad-Javad Zarifalso said Kiarostami's death was a loss for international cinema. In a statement, French PresidentFrançois Hollandepraised the director for forging "close artistic ties and deep friendships" with France.

Media, such asThe New York Times,CNN,The Guardian,The Huffington Post,The Independent,Associated Press,EuronewsandLe Mondealso reacted to Kiarostami's death.The New York Timeswrote: "Abbas Kiarostami, Acclaimed Iranian Filmmaker, Dies at 76"andPeter Bradshawpaid tribute to Kiarostami: "a sophisticated, self-possessed master of cinematic poetry"

The crowd that had gathered for this service in Paris held a vigil by theRiver Seine.They then allowed the waves of the Seine to carry away photos of Kiarostami that the crowd had left floating on the river. It was a symbolic moment of saying goodbye to a film director that many Iranians have come to passionately appreciate.

Funeral

Kiarostami's grave atLavasan

Artists, cultural authorities, government officials, and the Iranian people gathered to say goodbye to Kiarostami on 10 July in an emotional funeral, six days after his death in France. The ceremony was held at theCenter for the Intellectual Education of Children,where he began his film-making career some 40 years before.Attendees held banners with the titles of his movies and pictures of his most famous posters, as they praised the support Kiarostami contributed to culture, and particularly to filmmaking in Iran. The ceremony was hosted by famous Iranian actorParviz Parastooie,and included speeches by painterAidin Aghdashlouand prize-winning film directorAsghar Farhadi,who stressed his professional abilities. He was later buried in a private ceremony in the northern Tehran town ofLavasan.

Sexual assault and plagiarism allegations

In August 2020,Mania Akbari,who starred inTen,accused Kiarostami of plagiarism, stating that he edited private footage shot by Akbari into the film without her permission.In her 2019 short filmLetter to My Mother,Amina Maher,daughter of Akbari, who also appeared inTen,said that her scenes inTenwere filmed without her knowledge.In 2022, Akbari and Maher revealed that they had been asking distributorMK2to halt circulation of the film, to which MK2 has yet to respond. Consequently, theBritish Film InstituteremovedTenfrom a Kiarostami retrospective.

In 2022, Akbari accused Kiarostami of raping her twice, in Tehran when she was 25 and he was about 60, and in London afterTenhad premiered.

Reception and criticism

Kiarostami has received worldwide acclaim for his work from both audiences and critics, and, in 1999, he was voted the most important Iranian film director of the 1990s by two international critics' polls.Four of his films were placed in the top six of Cinematheque Ontario's Best of the '90s poll.He has gained recognition from film theorists, critics, as well as peers such asJean-Luc Godard,Nanni Moretti,andChris Marker.Akira Kurosawasaid of Kiarostami's films: "Words cannot describe my feelings about them... WhenSatyajit Raypassed on, I was very depressed. But after seeing Kiarostami's films, I thanked God for giving us just the right person to take his place. " Critically acclaimed directors such asMartin Scorsesehave commented that "Kiarostami represents the highest level of artistry in the cinema."The Austrian directorMichael Hanekehad admired the work of Abbas Kiarostami as among the best of any living director.In 2006,The Guardian's panel of critics ranked Kiarostami as the best contemporary non-American film director.

Critics such asJonathan Rosenbaumhave argued that "there's no getting around the fact that the movies of Abbas Kiarostami divide audiences—in this country, in his native Iran, and everywhere else they're shown."Rosenbaum argues that disagreements and controversy over Kiarostami's movies have arisen from his style of film-making because what in Hollywood would count as essential narrative information is frequently missing from Kiarostami's films. Camera placement, likewise, often defies standard audience expectations: in the closing sequences ofLife and Nothing MoreandThrough the Olive Trees,the audience is forced to imagine the dialogue and circumstances of important scenes. InHomeworkandClose-Up,parts of the soundtrack are masked or silenced. Critics have argued that the subtlety of Kiarostami's cinematic expression is largely resistant to critical analysis.

Iranian film directorAsghar Farhadispeaking on Abbas Kiarostami's funeral, in Tehran, Iran

While Kiarostami has won significant acclaim in Europe for several of his films, the Iranian government has refused to permit the screening of his films, to which he responded "The government has decided not to show any of my films for the past 10 years... I think they don't understand my films and so prevent them being shown just in case there is a message they don't want to get out".

In the wake of theSeptember 11 attacks,Kiarostami was refused avisato attend theNew York Film Festival.The festival director,Richard Peña,who had invited him said, "It's a terrible sign of what's happening in my country today that no one seems to realize or care about the kind of negative signal this sends out to the entireMuslim world".The Finnish film directorAki Kaurismäkiboycotted the festival in protest.Kiarostami had been invited by theNew York Film Festival,as well asOhio UniversityandHarvard University.

In 2005,London Film Schoolorganized a workshop as well as the festival of Kiarostami's work, titled "Abbas Kiarostami: Visions of the Artist". Ben Gibson, Director of the London Film School, said, "Very few people have the creative and intellectual clarity to invent cinema from its most basic elements, from the ground up. We are very lucky to have the chance to see a master like Kiarostami thinking on his feet."He was later made Honorary Associate.

In 2007, theMuseum of Modern ArtandMoMA PS1co-organized a festival of the Kiarostami's work titledAbbas Kiarostami: Image Maker.

Kiarostami and his cinematic style have been the subject of several books and three films,Opening Day of Close-Up(1996), directed byNanni Moretti,Abbas Kiarostami: The Art of Living(2003), directed by Pat Collins and Fergus Daly, andAbbas Kiarostami: A Report(2014), directed byBahman Maghsoudlou.

Kiarostami was a member of the advisory board ofWorld Cinema Foundation.Founded by the director Martin Scorsese, its goal is to find and reconstruct world cinema films that have been long neglected.

Selected honors and awards

Main article:List of awards won by Abbas Kiarostami

Kiarostami has won the admiration of audiences and critics worldwide and received at least seventy awards up to the year 2000.Here are some representatives:

• Prix Roberto Rossellini(1992)
• Prix Cine Decouvertes (1992)
• François TruffautAward (1993)
• Pier Paolo PasoliniAward (1995)
• Federico FelliniGold Medal,UNESCO(1997)
• Palme d'Or,Cannes Film Festival(1997)
• Honorary Golden Alexander Prize,Thessaloniki International Film Festival(1999)
• Silver Lion,Venice Film Festival(1999)
• Akira KurosawaAward (2000)
• honorary doctorate,École Normale Supérieure(2003)
• Konrad WolfPrize (2003)
• President of the Jury forCaméra d'OrAward, Cannes Festival (2005)
• Fellowshipof theBritish Film Institute(2005)
• Gold Leopard of Honor,Locarno International Film Festival(2005)
• Prix Henri-LangloisPrize (2006)
• Honorary doctorate,University of Toulouse(2007)
• World's great masters,Kolkata International Film Festival(2007)
• Glory to the Filmmaker Award, Venice Film Festival (2008)
• Honorary doctorate,University of Paris(2010)
• Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to World Cinematography (BIAFF – Batumi International Art-house film Festival, 2010)
• Japan's Medal of Honor(2013)
• Austrian Decoration for Science and Art(2014)
• Honorary Golden Orange Prize,International Antalya Film Festival(2014)

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Film	Director	Writer	Notes
1973	The Experience	Yes	Yes	written withAmir Naderi
1974	The Traveler	Yes	Yes
1976	A Wedding Suit	Yes	Yes	written with Parviz Davayi
1977	The Report	Yes	Yes
1979	First Case, Second Case	Yes	Yes
1983	Fellow Citizen	Yes	Yes	documentary film
1984	First Graders	Yes	Yes	documentary film
1987	Where Is the Friend's Home?	Yes	Yes	first film of theKokertrilogy
1987	The Key	No	Yes
1989	Homework	Yes	Yes	documentary film
1990	Close-Up	Yes	Yes	docufiction film
1992	Life, and Nothing More...	Yes	Yes	second film of theKokertrilogy alternatively titledAnd Life Goes Onin English
1994	Through the Olive Trees	Yes	Yes	third and final film of theKokertrilogy
1994	Safar	No	Yes	alternatively titledThe Journeyin English
1995	The White Balloon	No	Yes
1997	Taste of Cherry	Yes	Yes
1999	Willow and Wind	No	Yes
1999	The Wind Will Carry Us	Yes	Yes
2001	ABC Africa	Yes	Yes	documentary film
2002	The Deserted Station	No	No	story concept by Kiarostami
2002	Ten	Yes	Yes	docufiction film
2003	Crimson Gold	No	Yes
2003	Five Dedicated to Ozu	Yes	Yes	documentary film alternatively titledFive
2004	10 on Ten	Yes	Yes	documentary film on Kiarostami's own films, especiallyTen
2005	Tickets	Yes	Yes	directed withErmanno OlmiandKen Loach written with Ermanno Olmi andPaul Laverty
2006	Men at Work	No	No	initial story concept by Kiarostami
2006	Víctor Erice–Abbas Kiarostami: Correspondences	Yes	Yes	collaboration with noted directorVíctor Erice also written and directed by Erice
2007	Persian Carpet	Yes	Yes	only theIs There a Place to Approach?segment one of 15 segments inPersian Carpet,in which each is by a differentIraniandirector
2008	Shirin	Yes	Yes
2010	Certified Copy	Yes	Yes
2012	Like Someone in Love	Yes	Yes
2012	Meeting Leila	No	Yes
2016	Final Exam	No	Yes	posthumous, story concept by Kiarostami before his passing also written by Adel Yaraghi, who directed
2017	24 Frames	Yes	Yes

Short films

Year	Film	Director	Writer	Notes
1972	Recess	Yes	Yes
1975	Two Solutions for One Problem	Yes	Yes
1975	So Can I	Yes	Yes
1976	The Colours	Yes	Yes
1977	Tribute to the Teachers	Yes	Yes	documentary
1977	Jahan-nama Palace	Yes	Yes	documentary
1977	How to Make Use of Leisure Time	Yes	Yes
1978	Solution	Yes	Yes	also calledSolution No.1in English
1980	Driver	No	Yes
1980	Orderly or Disorderly	Yes	Yes
1982	The Chorus	Yes	Yes
1995	Solution	Yes	Yes
1995	Abbas Kiarostami	Yes	Yes	segment fromLumière and Company
1997	The Birth of Light	Yes	Yes
1999	Volte sempre, Abbas!	No	Yes
2005	Roads of Kiarostami	Yes	Yes
2007	Is There a Place to Approach?	Yes	Yes	one of 15 segments inPersian Carpet,in which each is by a different Iranian director
2013	The Girl in the Lemon Factory	No	Yes	also written by Chiara Maranon, who directed
2014	Seagull Eggs	Yes	Yes	documentary

Books by Kiarostami

• Havres:French translation by Tayebeh Hashemi and Jean-Restom Nasser, ÉRÈS (PO&PSY); Bilingual edition (3 June 2010)ISBN978-2-7492-1223-4.
• Abbas Kiarostami:Cahiers du Cinéma Livres (24 October 1997)ISBN2-86642-196-5.
• Walking with the Wind (Voices and Visions in Film):English translation byAhmad Karimi-Hakkakand Michael C. Beard, Harvard Film Archive; Bilingual edition (28 February 2002)ISBN0-674-00844-8.
• 10 (ten):Cahiers du CinémaLivres (5 September 2002)ISBN2-86642-346-1.
• WithNahal TajadodandJean-Claude CarrièreAvec le vent:P.O.L. (5 May 2002)ISBN2-86744-889-1.
• Le vent nous emportera:Cahiers du Cinéma Livres (5 September 2002)ISBN2-86642-347-X.
• La Lettre du Cinema:P.O.L. (12 December 1997)ISBN2-86744-589-2.
• Kiarostami, Abbas,A Wolf on Watch(Persian / English dual language), English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2015)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,With the Wind(Persian / English dual language), English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2015)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,Wind and Leaf(Persian / English dual language), English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2015)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,Wine(poetry by Hafez) (Persian / English dual language), English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2015)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,Tears(poetry by Saadi) (Persian / English dual language), English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2015)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,Water(poetry by Nima) (Persian / English dual language), English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2015)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,Fire(poetry by Rumi) (four volumes) (Persian / English dual language), English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2016)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,Night: Poetry from the Contemporary Persian Canon(two volumes) (Persian / English Dual Language), English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2016)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,Night: Poetry from the Classical Persian Canon(two volumes) (Persian / English Dual Language), English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2016)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,In the Shadow of Trees: The Collected Poetry of Abbas Kiarostami,English Translation by Iman Tavassoly and Paul Cronin, Sticking Place Books (2016)
• Kiarostami, Abbas,Lessons with Kiarostami(edited by Paul Cronin), Sticking Place Books (2015)
• Mohammed Afkhami, Sussan Babaie, Venetia Porter, Natasha Morris. "Honar: The Afkhami Collection of Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art." Phaidon Press, 2017.ISBN978-0-7148-7352-7.

See also

• Cinema of Iran

Bibliography

• Geoff Andrew,Ten(London: BFI Publishing, 2005).
• Erice-Kiarostami.Correspondences,2006,ISBN84-96540-24-3,catalogue of an exhibition together with the Spanish filmmakerVíctor Erice
• Alberto Elena,The Cinema of Abbas Kiarostami,Saqi Books 2005,ISBN0-86356-594-8
• Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa, Jonathan Rosenbaum,Abbas Kiarostami(Contemporary Film Directors), University of Illinois Press 2003 (paperback),ISBN0-252-07111-5
• Julian Rice,Abbas Kiarostami's Cinema of Life,Rowman & Littlefield 2020,ISBN978-1-5381-3700-0
• Jean-Luc Nancy,The Evidence of Film – Abbas Kiarostami,Yves Gevaert, Belgium 2001,ISBN2-930128-17-8
• Jean-Claude Bernardet,Caminhos de Kiarostami,Melhoramentos; 1 edition (2004),ISBN978-85-359-0571-7
• Marco Dalla Gassa,Abbas Kiarostami,Publisher: Mani (2000)ISBN978-88-8012-147-3
• Youssef Ishaghpour,Le réel, face et pile: Le cinéma d'Abbas Kiarostami,Farrago (2000)ISBN978-2-84490-063-0
• Alberto Barberaand Elisa Resegotti (editors),Kiarostami,Electa (30 April 2004)ISBN978-88-370-2390-4
• Laurent Kretzschmar, "Is Cinema Renewing Itself?",Film-Philosophy.vol. 6 no 15, July 2002.
• Jonathan Rosenbaum,"Lessons from a Master,"Chicago Reader,14 June 1996
• Tanya Shilina-Conte, "Abbas Kiarostami's 'Lessons of Darkness:’ Affect, Non-Representation, and Becoming-Imperceptible". Special Issue on "Abbas Kiarostami". Iran Namag, A Quarterly of Iranian Studies 2, no. 4 (Winter 2017/2018), University of Toronto, Canada
• Silke von Berswordt-Wallrabeet al. (eds.):Abbas Kiarostami. Images, Still and Moving,exh. cat. Situation Kunst Bochum, Museum Wiesbaden, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2012),ISBN978-3-7757-3436-3
• Andreas Kramer, Jan Röhnert (ed.), Poetry and Film / Lyrik und Film. Abbas Kiarostami and / und Jim Jarmusch, Frankfurt am Main 2020

External links

• Abbas KiarostamiatIMDb