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Abbas Kiarostami
Director / Screenwriter / Editor / Producer / Cinematographer
1940 - 
Born June 22, Teheran, Iran
Key Production Countries: Iran, France
Key Genres: Drama, Docudrama, Avant-garde/Experimental
Key Collaborators: Marin Karmitz (Producer), Ali Reza Zarrin (Producer), Farhad Kheradmand (Leading Player), Homayun Payvar (Cinematographer), Farhad Saba (Cinematographer), Ali Reza Zarrindast (Cinematographer), Kheda Barech Defai (Character Player), Ahmed Ahmed Poor (Character Player), Babek Ahmed Poor (Character Player), Peyman Yazdanian (Composer)

Highly Recommended: A Taste of Cherry (1997)*, The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)*
Recommended: Where is the Friend's Home? (1987)*, Homework (1989), Close-Up (1990)*, And Life Goes On... (1992)*, Through the Olive Trees (1994)*, Ten (2002)^, Certified Copy (2009)^
Worth a Look: The Traveller (1974), The Wedding Suit (1976), The Report (1977), Five Dedicated to Ozu (2003), Shirin (2008)
Approach with Caution: Orderly or Disorderly (1981), Tickets (2005) [co-directed by Ken Loach & Ermanno Olmi], Roads of Kiarostami (2006)
* Listed in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films section; ^ Listed in TSPDT's 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films section.

 
 
 
Links: [ Amazon ] [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Senses of Cinema: Great Directors ] [ Film Reference ] [ Strictly Film School ] [ Wikipedia ] [ Iranian Movies.com ] [ Rouge Article (2006) ] [ Time Out Article (2010) ]
Books: [ Abbas Kiarostami (Contemporary Film Directors) ] [ Walking with the Wind ] [ Abbas Kiarostami ] [ The Cinema Of Abbas Kiarostami ]
 
Close-Up (1989)A Taste of Cherry (1997)The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)Where is the Friend's Home? (1987)
 
     
  "The fact that Iranian cinema is considered one of the best in the world is mainly due to Abbas Kiarostami, whose films play brilliantly with audiences' perceptions of cinema...Although Kiarostami has said, "I don't invent material. I just watch and take it from the daily life of people around me, " his realism is carefully constructed." - Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006)  
     
  "Kiarostami studied fine art and worked as a graphic designer before making his directorial debut with The Bread and the Alley (1970). A key figure in Iranian film-making, he eschews conventional narrative and professional actors to offer deceptively simple poetic reflections on everyday life and death in his country.." - (Chambers Film Factfinder, 2006)  
     
  "The films of Iranian master Kiarostami, while succeeding partly as oblique but illuminating reflections of his country's recent history, occupy a more fertile territory somewhere between documentary and self-reflexive, modernist drama...Kiarostami's humane compassion for his characters shines bright, his simple compositions and stories and long takes a mark of deep respect for their quiet integrity and strength of spirit." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)  
     
 
Please note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director that we haven't seen include Two Solutions for One Problem (1975) and Fellow Citizen (1983).
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"Nearly all of Kiarostami’s films are inspired by his immediate experiences, and he always uses nonprofessional actors. The distinction between documentary and fiction is often blurred in his work, and Kiarostami himself resists their neat separation... Kiarostami’s films break away from conventional narrative, and are completely self-referential, often eschewing a strict chronological structure... Employing simple imagery of daily life with an emphasis on the Iranian landscape, Kiarostami is a master of using visual imagery to convey abstract philosophical ideas and his characters’ inner struggles of the soul." - Mita Lad, Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

 
 
Top 250 Directors
100 Essential Directors (Pop Matters)
Ranked 6th on The Guardian's 2004 List of the World's 40 Best Directors
501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers
 
See Also
Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Bahman Ghobadi (External Link)
Jean-Luc Godard
Majid Majidi (External Link)
Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Samira Makhmalbaf (External Link)
Jafar Panahi
Roberto Rossellini
Jean Rouch
Jean Vigo
View video clips relating to this director at YouTube.com
 
         
         

 

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