Abbas Kiarostami (June 22, 1940 – July 4, 2016) was an Iranian film director considered one of the major directors of the Iranian New Wave.
After working in advertising, designing film titles, and illustrating children's books he went into filmmaking. Most of his early works were films aimed at children made for Kanun, Iran's Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults.
In 1987 he directed Where is the Friend's Home? which brought him to attention outside of Iran. The film was the first part of his Koker trilogy. Kiarostami would go on to win many international awards including the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Taste of Cherry. His films were often challenged and banned by Iranian censors.
He served as a mentor to younger filmmakers such as Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi.
Kiarostami was hospitalized in March 2016 for intestinal bleeding due to stomach cancer. He died July 4, 2016.
Selected Filmography:
- Where is the Friend's Home?
- Close-Up
- Life, and Nothing More...
- Through the Olive Trees
- Taste of Cherry
- The Wind Will Carry Us
- ABC Africa
- Ten
- Shirin
- Certified Copy
- Like Someone in Love
Tropes:
- Author Appeal: Kiarostami loved poetry (and was a poet himself), so many of his films reference or are titled after Persian poems.
- Cool Shades: Always wore sunglasses or dark spectacles due to a sensitivity to light.
- Minimalism: Many of his films have simple plots. For example, Taste of Cherry is about a man who drives around trying to find someone to bury him after he commits suicide. That's the entire plot.
- Postmodernism: Many of Kiarostami's films examine both the film-making process and how film can mislead and manipulate us.
- Signature Style: Recurring elements in Kiarostami's films include: mixing fact and fiction, child protagonists, scenes in cars, and references to poetry.
