Kanoon

Born in 1940, Kiarostami joined Iran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (aka Kanoon) in 1968, where he helped establish a filmmaking department. BAMPFA has two very rare booklets published by Kanoon in its earliest days, including this fancifully designed 1970 edition.

Bread and Alley

This 1970 edition includes Kiarostami’s first film, Bread and Alley (a.k.a. Bread and A Street). These pages mark the first time a Kiarostami film is ever described in print.

Breaktime

Unassuming, almost charcoal-like sketches form the spare yet evocative graphics of future Kiarostami press kits, as designed by the Farabi Cinema Foundation, the main post-Revolution promoter of Iranian cinema to the outside world. (For a fascinating look at Farabi’s complicated role as protector, hinderer, cultivator, and censor of Iranian film culture, see Shiva Rahbaran’s 2016 book Iranian Cinema Uncensored, which features interviews with Kiarostami, other filmmakers, and Farabi’s former leader, Mohammad Beheshti). BAMPFA has several Farabi press kits in its collection, including this one for Kiarostami’s next short, 1972’s Breaktime.
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Solution and Through the Olive Trees

Kiarostami’s droll 1978 road movie Solution (or Solution #1) gets a similarly absurdist graphic, while the quietly suggestive image of flower-like hearts in a vase and a filmmaker’s clapboard repeat through every page of the press kit for one of his first classics, Through the Olive Trees.
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See the full document for Through the Olive Trees

Homework

One film, two marketing approaches: the first press kit cover for Homework, done in the same style as Kiarostami’s early works, and another version, seemingly boasting a slightly larger budget.
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And Life Goes On . . . and Where Is the Friend’s Home

Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy (Where Is the Friend’s Home?, And Life Goes On…, and Through the Olive Trees) finally earned the director much notice in the festival world. Here are two striking Farabi press kit covers.
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Certified Copy and Like Someone in Love

Handled by global companies such as MK2 Productions or Celluloid Dreams, the press kits for Kiarostami’s late-career works were far glossier, in-depth, and more well-financed than those for his Iranian productions, boasting glossy stills, interviews with stars, and behind-the-scenes snapshots. Here are two samples, both drawn from our collection: Certified Copy, featuring an interview with Juliette Binoche on Kiarostami, and Like Someone in Love, with the thoughts of critic / cineaste / programmer Pierre Rissient.
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BFI: Abbas Kiarostami: Visions of the Artists

A final piece from the BAMPFA collection is this 38-page booklet from the BFI, Abbas Kiarostami: Visions of the Artists. Critical essays, thoughts from the director, and shots of his photography make this an essential piece, and a wonderful companion to our series.
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The BAMPFA Film Library & Study Center is open Wednesday through Friday from 1 to 5 PM, or by appointment.