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Ten Abbas Kiarostami A daring experiment from celebrated Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry), Ten uses a small digicam planted on the dashboard of a moving car to explore issues of sex, divorce, love, and religion through a series of conversations between driver and passenger. Subtle expressions and chance compositions elevate Kiarostami's study from a formal experiment to a humanistic tour-de-force, "capable of changing the ways you look at the movies - and at life" (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune). The DVD includes the behind-the-scenes documentary 10 on Ten (2004): an 83 min. feature directed by Kiarostami, filmography, production notes, and more. Farsi with English subtitles. Iran/France, 2003, 90 mins. DVD | $44.95
ABC Africa Abbas Kiarostami At the behest of the United Nations, Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami travelled to Uganda to craft this profound and affecting documentary. Kiarostami's film tempers its sadness at the ravaging effects of AIDS, famine, and poverty, with a celebration of the courage and joy of his subjects. By acting as a participant in the events he captures, Kiarostami crafts a work "of seemingly limpid transparency and tremendous, understated compassion" (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune). In English and Farsi with English subtitles. Iran 2001 83 mins. DVD | $44.95
Close-Up Abbas Kiarostami In this brilliant meditation on the power of movies, master Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami turns the medium upside-down and back again, blurring the lines between documentary and narrative film. Inspired by the true story of a lonely film buff who impersonated Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Kiarostami reenacts some of the man's trial and incorporates some footage from the actual event, using the real people involved as "actors." By making the filmmaking process as central as the story, Kiarostami avoids the pitfalls of the so-called "docudrama," creating something far more meaningful. His masterstroke comes when the real Makhmalbaf meets his impersonator. "...we are ultimately left defenseless against the extraordinary power of its final scenes, which are as transcendent--and as shrewd--as anything in cinema" (Godfrey Cheshire, New York Press). Includes an interview with Abbas Kiarostami and Kiarostami and Makhmalbaf filmographies. DVD in Persian with English subtitles; Iran, 1990, 100 mins. DVD | $44.95
Life and Nothing More Abbas Kiarostami The film investigates the aftermath of a devastating 1990 earthquake which killed some 50,000 people in northern Iran. This region provided the setting for Kiarostami's Where Is the Friend's Home. Kiarostami's search for the two young actors who played central roles in that film becomes the dramatic source of Life and Nothing More…as a father and son travel to Quoker, the hometown of the two boys, and along the way meet earthquake survivors who desperately and valiantly work to reconstruct their lives. "…in many ways the most beautiful and powerful Iranian film I've seen" (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader). Videocassette in Farsi with English subtitles. Iran, 1992, 91 mins. Videocassette | $44.95
Taste of Cherry Abbas Kiarostami One of the great works of recent international cinema and the apex of contemporary Iranian film, Abbas Kiarostami's brilliant and deceptively simple film follows a dispirited middle-aged man who plans to commit suicide. Driving to various locations, he tries to find someone who will bury him after he is dead. A Kurd soldier, an Afghan seminarian and others are among those asked to consider his unusual offer. "Precise, psychologically subtle, serenely controlled, consisting mostly of intense conversations on the road, it is the work of an obvious master..." (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune). Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and named as Best Foreign Language Film by the National Society of Film Critics. Farsi with English subtitles. Iran, 1997, 95 mins. DVD | $44.95
Where Is the Friend's Home? Abbas Kiarostami A lyrical tale about a traveller searching for his friend's home, who finds himself on an excursion through places and moments of great beauty and wonder. The friends are the schoolmates Ahmad and Mohammad Reza. Mohammad Reza's careless attitude towards his homework has drawn several reprimands from their stern teacher, culminating in the threat of expulsion if he does not do his work. When Ahmad prepares to do his own homework, he finds that he has accidentally picked up Mohammad Reza's notebook. Fearing that his friend will be expelled if he cannot submit his lesson the next day, Ahmad defies his parents and sets out to find his friend's home in the neighboring village. Winner of the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. Videocassette in Farsi with English subtitles. Iran, 1989, 90 mins. Videocassette | $44.95
The Wind Will Carry Us Abbas Kiarostami Contrasting the simple beauty of life itself with the absurd intrusions and blinders of modern deadlines and technology, Abbas Kiarostami presents a film that is both compassionate and ironic. The story follows a group of media professionals, identified early on as "engineers," who travel to a small village in the northern Kurdistani region of Iran, where the fate of a dying, elderly villager commands their attention. "Shot through with Renoir-esque humanism, this attack on intellectual torpor is also a tribute to the Kurdish people. Utterly brilliant" (David Parkinson, Empire). DVD in Farsi with English subtitles. Iran/France, 1999, 118 mins. DVD | $44.95
