Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker

7/7/07 to 8/30/07

One of the most critically acclaimed and influential filmmakers of the past twenty-five years, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami has captivated Western audiences with works of deceptive simplicity and indefinable poetry. We are proud to present this retrospective of his films, from early documentaries through his celebrated "Koker trilogy" and recent masterworks like The Wind Will Carry Us and Five, along with an exhibition of his still photographs in the BAM galleries. "These are indispensable films."-The Nation

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  • And Life Goes On, August 4, 11

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • 10 on Ten

    • Thursday, August 30 7:00 pm

    From the master himself, thoughts on filmmaking as a journey, delivered from-where else?-the front seat of his car while driving around Taste of Cherry's dusty landscapes. "An incisive, sometimes funny, and often provocative contemplation of the art of cinema."-MoMA, N.Y.

  • The Wind Will Carry Us

    • Thursday, August 30 9:00 pm

    Please see Saturday, July 7.

  • Five

    • Tuesday, August 28 7:30 pm

    Please see Thursday, August 23.

  • Where Is the Friend's Home?

    • Saturday, August 25 6:30pm

    Please see Saturday, July 28.

  • Homework

    • Saturday, August 25 8:30pm

    Please see Saturday, July 28.

  • ABC Africa

    • Thursday, August 23 7:00pm

    Kiarostami's first film made outside of Iran is this stirring, poetic documentary on AIDS orphans in Uganda: "A film without borders."-indieWire. "An ode to life, as embodied by the vitality of the Ugandan people."-MoMA, N.Y.

  • Five

    • Thursday, August 23 8:45 pm

    Dedicated to Yasujiro Ozu, Kiarostami's serene cinematic nature studies, shot mostly along the Caspian Sea, recall Andy Warhol and the landscape works of James Benning. "Remarkably captivating, like a perfectly crafted object of contemplation."-Village Voice

  • Close-Up

    • Saturday, August 18 8:00 pm

    With featurette. Please see Saturday, July 21.

  • Ten

    • Thursday, August 16 7:00pm

    In the front seat of her car, a young urban divorcee grapples with her anxieties in this "courageous, instinctive film . . . sometimes funny, sometimes moving, always engrossing . . . offering a new model of filmmaking that reaches deep into human behavior and concerns."-Variety. With short Roads of Kiarostami.

  • Taste of Cherry

    • Saturday, August 11 6:30pm

    The Cannes prizewinning mystery of a man seemingly in his prime who searches the dusty hills of rural Iran for someone to help him commit suicide. Naturally, everyone he meets has an opinion on the subject. "A masterpiece."-The Nation. With short Birth of Light.

  • And Life Goes On

    • Saturday, August 11 8:35 pm

    Please see Saturday, August 4.

  • First-Graders

    • Thursday, August 9 7:00pm

    Please see Saturday, July 28.

  • Fellow Citizen

    • Thursday, August 9 8:45 pm

    With shorts. Please see Tuesday, July 24.

  • Rugs, Roads, and Palaces: Short Films by Abbas Kiarostami

    • Tuesday, August 7 7:30pm

    A chance to see Kiarostami's rare 1977 film on the restoration of one of the Shah's residencies, Jahan-Nama Palace; a "tour" of a unique Persian carpet, Rug; Birth of Light, filmed in Japan; and the estimable Roads of Kiarostami, a poetic meditation on photography, beauty, and destruction.

  • And Life Goes On

    • Saturday, August 4 6:30pm

    Kiarostami seeks to find out the fate of the now–earthquake devastated area of Koker and Poshteh from Where Is the Friend's Home? and finds willing actors among the survivors. Repeated on Saturday, August 11.

  • Through the Olive Trees

    • Saturday, August 4 8:30pm

    The Koker trilogy's last film, "which follows the misadventures of a crew shooting a film in rural Iran, at first seems to be a joke about the way life resists being turned into a movie, but it becomes a better joke about a movie that transforms life."-New Yorker

  • First-Graders

    • Saturday, July 28 4:30pm

    Play meets punishment in Kiarostami's documentary on first-graders reporting for their first day of school. Repeated on Thursday, August 9.

  • Where Is the Friend's Home?

    • Saturday, July 28 6:30 pm

    This beautiful picture of the life of a child in a northern Iranian village is the first of Kiarostami's beloved Koker trilogy. Repeated on Saturday, August 25.

  • Homework

    • Saturday, July 28 8:30pm

    In a series of interviews with grade-school boys on the topic of homework, much is revealed on the topic of life. Repeated on Saturday, August 25.

  • Fellow Citizen

    • Tuesday, July 24 7:30 pm

    Bossy citizens invent countless reasons why a traffic cop should let them pass in Kiarostami's satiric example of humanity's capacity for lying-that is, telling stories. With shorts Orderly or Disorderly and The Chorus. Repeated on Thursday, August 9.

  • The Wedding Suit

    • Saturday, July 21 4:30 pm

    With shorts. Please see Thursday, July 19.

  • Close-Up

    • Saturday, July 21 6:30 pm

    "Kiarostami, in semi-documentary mode, re-creates the true story of an unemployed dreamer-an ardent cinephile-who passes himself off as the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a fraudulent act that becomes both an homage and a fresh work of art."-New Yorker. With Film School of Hossein Sabzian. Repeated on Saturday, August 18.

  • The Wedding Suit

    • Thursday, July 19 7:00pm

    An O. Henry–like story of a wedding suit "borrowed" from the tailor's for a night explores the world of working youths in the shops and streets of Tehran. "Great suspense is built by purely visual means, recalling the apparent simplicity of neorealism."-MoMA, N.Y. With shorts Colors and Solution No. 1. Repeated on Saturday, July 21.

  • The Experience

    • Thursday, July 19 8:45 pm

    With shorts. Please see Saturday, July 14.

  • The Traveler

    • Saturday, July 14 6:30pm

    With shorts. Please see Tuesday, July 10.

  • The Experience

    • Saturday, July 14 4:30pm

    Kiarostami's wonderful, nearly wordless portrait of a young photographer's assistant who nurses a crush on a girl beyond his reach. With shorts Bread and Alley and Recess. Repeated on Thursday, July 19.

  • The Traveler

    • Tuesday, July 10 7:30pm

    A young boy in a rural village schemes and dreams his way to a soccer match in Tehran in Kiarostami's first feature, similar to The 400 Blows. With shorts So Can I and Two Solutions for One Problem. Repeated on Saturday, July 14.

  • The Wind Will Carry Us

    • Saturday, July 7 8:00 pm

    A television crew arrives at a remote Kurdish village to await a mourning ritual. While they wait for death, life happens. "A stunningly lyrical and eloquent exploration of both rural village life and the nature of artistic responsibility."-N.Y. Times. Repeated on Thursday, August 30.