Taste of Cherry
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami • 1997 • Iran
Starring Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari
The first Iranian film to win the Palme d’Or, this austere, emotionally complex drama by the great Abbas Kiarostami follows the middle-aged Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) as he drives around the hilly outskirts of Tehran looking for someone who will agree to dispose of his body after he commits suicide, a taboo under Islam. Extended conversations with three passengers (a soldier, a seminarian, and a taxidermist) elicit different views of mortality and individual choice. Operating at once as a closely observed, realistic story and a fable populated by archetypal figures, TASTE OF CHERRY challenges the viewer to consider what often goes unexamined in everyday life.
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Taste of Cherry
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami • 1997 • Iran
Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry is an emotionally complex meditation on life and death. Middle-aged Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) drives through the hilly outskirts of Tehran, s...
Extras
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Hamid Naficy on TASTE OF CHERRY
In this interview, shot in 2019, film scholar Hamid Naficy, author of the four-volume study “A Social History of Iranian Cinema,” discusses TASTE OF CHERRY.
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Abbas Kiarostami on TASTE OF CHERRY
Dr. Jamsheed Akrami, professor of communication at William Paterson University, conducted this interview with director Abbas Kiarostami prior to the release of TASTE OF CHERRY, in 1997. It was recorded for Dr. Akrami’s 2000 documentary on Iranian cinema, FRIENDLY PERSUASION.
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Abbas Kiarostami: The Character of Landscape, the Landscape of Character
In the third installment in our ongoing introduction to film language, Professor Kristin Thompson offers an analysis of the legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami’s quiet genius.
