Abbas Kiarostami: Life as Art
August 2–December 21, 2019
Iran’s most influential director, Kiarostami made films that blended fiction and documentary, minimalism and spontaneity, poetic vision and humanist spirit. We present a near-complete retrospective of his work.
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Where Is the Friend's Home
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Through the Olive Trees
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The Wind Will Carry Us
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Taste of Cherry
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Certified Copy
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Films
The Traveler
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1974Digital Restoration
Friday, August 2 6:30 PMView DetailsA young boy in a rural village schemes and dreams his way to a big-city soccer match in Kiarostami’s first feature, similar to The 400 Blows. With short Bread and Alley.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1999Digital Restoration
Sunday, August 4 7 PMIntroduction and Lecture by Hamid NaficyView DetailsA 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” (New York Times).
Where Is the Friend’s Home?
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1987Digital Restoration
BAMPFA Student Committee PickSaturday, August 10 6 PMView DetailsThis beautiful picture of the life of a child in a northern Iranian village is the first film in Kiarostami’s beloved Koker trilogy.
And Life Goes On . . .
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1992Digital Restoration
Saturday, August 17 6 PMView DetailsKiarostami seeks to find out the fate of the earthquake-devastated area of Koker and Poshteh from Where Is the Friend’s Home? and finds willing actors among the survivors.
Close-Up
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1990Sunday, August 18 7 PMView DetailsAn unemployed film fanatic who impersonated director Mohsen Makhmalbaf is the subject of Kiarostami’s mind-bending docu-fictional masterpiece, which reenacts the entire affair with the impersonator and Makhmalbaf himself.
Through the Olive Trees
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1994Digital Restoration
Through the Olive Trees is also presented on Tuesday, September 17 with an introduction and post-screening lecture by author Godfrey Cheshire.
Saturday, August 24 6 PMView DetailsIn Kiarostami’s fittingly self-reflective end to the Koker trilogy, a lovelorn youth gets another chance at romance when a visiting film crew casts him and his disinterested paramour as husband and wife.
The Traveler
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1974Digital Restoration
Sunday, September 8 4:30 PMView DetailsA young boy in a rural village schemes and dreams his way to a big-city soccer match in Kiarostami’s first feature, similar to The 400 Blows. With short Bread and Alley.
Where Is the Friend’s Home?
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1987Digital Restoration
BAMPFA Student Committee PickFriday, September 13 7 PMView DetailsThis beautiful picture of the life of a child in a northern Iranian village is the first film in Kiarostami’s beloved Koker trilogy.
A Wedding Suit
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1976Digital Restoration
Sunday, September 15 3:30 PMIntroduction and Lecture by Godfrey CheshireView DetailsKiarostami constructs an O. Henry–like fable set in the world of working youths in the shops and streets of Tehran. With Experience, a beautiful, nearly wordless tale about an adolescent boy juggling a job, a first crush, and the urge to sample adulthood’s temptations.
Through the Olive Trees
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1994Digital Restoration
Through the Olive Trees also screens without lecture on Saturday, August 24 and Friday, September 27.
Tuesday, September 17 7 PMIntroduction and Lecture by Godfrey CheshireView DetailsIn Kiarostami’s fittingly self-reflective end to the Koker trilogy, a lovelorn youth gets another chance at romance when a visiting film crew casts him and his disinterested paramour as husband and wife.
And Life Goes On . . .
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1992Digital Restoration
Friday, September 20 7 PMView DetailsKiarostami seeks to find out the fate of the earthquake-devastated area of Koker and Poshteh from Where Is the Friend’s Home? and finds willing actors among the survivors.
Case #1, Case #2
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1979Digital Restoration
Sunday, September 22 4 PMLecture by Abbas MilaniView DetailsA seemingly simple classroom struggle between teacher and students becomes an absorbing lesson in solidarity, ideology, and resistance in Kiarostami’s gripping documentary, filmed during the last days of the Shah and finished during the earliest days of the Islamic Revolution.
Through the Olive Trees
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1994Digital Restoration
Through the Olive Trees is also presented on Tuesday, September 17 with an introduction and post-screening lecture by author Godfrey Cheshire.
Friday, September 27 7 PMView DetailsIn Kiarostami’s fittingly self-reflective end to the Koker trilogy, a lovelorn youth gets another chance at romance when a visiting film crew casts him and his disinterested paramour as husband and wife.
RESCHEDULED—Homework
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1989Digital Restoration
Rescheduled
This film has been rescheduled to screen Saturday, November 23.Friday, October 11 8 PMView DetailsIn a series of interviews with grade-school boys on the topic of homework, much is revealed on the topic of life. With shorts Breaktime and Orderly or Disorderly.
First Graders
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1984Digital Restoration
Sunday, October 13 4:30 PMView DetailsPlay meets punishment in Kiarostami’s documentary on first-graders reporting for their first day of school. With shorts Two Solutions for One Problem and Solution.
76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami
Seifollah Samadian
Iran, 2016Screenings presented in Theater 2
Friday, October 18 6:30 PMView DetailsMade by a close friend and collaborator, this intimate and subtly revealing portrait follows Kiarostami in Iran and abroad, at work as a photographer, filmmaker, installation artist, and poet.
Close-Up
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1990Saturday, October 19 8 PMView DetailsAn unemployed film fanatic who impersonated director Mohsen Makhmalbaf is the subject of Kiarostami’s mind-bending docu-fictional masterpiece, which reenacts the entire affair with the impersonator and Makhmalbaf himself.
76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami
Seifollah Samadian
Iran, 2016Screenings presented in Theater 2
Sunday, October 20 3 PMView DetailsMade by a close friend and collaborator, this intimate and subtly revealing portrait follows Kiarostami in Iran and abroad, at work as a photographer, filmmaker, installation artist, and poet.
CANCELED—Abbas Kiarostami: Five Short Films
Canceled
This screening has been canceled due to the UC Berkeley campus power shutdown. Please watch this page for updates on rescheduling and ticket refund information.Digital Restorations
Recommended for ages 10 & upSaturday, October 26 3 PMView DetailsAnyone curious about what episodes of Sesame Street would look like if they were directed by one of the world’s greatest filmmakers should catch this collection of shorts by Kiarostami, made for an Iranian children’s cultural institute.
Taste of Cherry
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1997Digital Restoration
Friday, November 1 7 PMView DetailsThe Cannes prizewinning mystery of a man who searches for someone to help him commit suicide. Naturally, everyone he meets has an opinion on the subject. “A masterpiece” (The Nation).
76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami
Seifollah Samadian
Iran, 2016Screenings presented in Theater 2
Saturday, November 2 3 PMView DetailsMade by a close friend and collaborator, this intimate and subtly revealing portrait follows Kiarostami in Iran and abroad, at work as a photographer, filmmaker, installation artist, and poet.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1999Digital Restoration
Sunday, November 3 7 PMIntroduction and Lecture by Hamid NaficyView DetailsA 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” (New York Times).
Ten
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, France, 2002Film to Table dinner follows
Saturday, November 9 5:30 PMView DetailsIn 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” (Variety).
76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami
Seifollah Samadian
Iran, 2016Screenings presented in Theater 2
Friday, November 15 6:30 PMView DetailsMade by a close friend and collaborator, this intimate and subtly revealing portrait follows Kiarostami in Iran and abroad, at work as a photographer, filmmaker, installation artist, and poet.
10 on Ten
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, France, 2004Saturday, November 16 5:30 PMView DetailsFrom the master himself, thoughts on filmmaking as a journey, delivered from—where else?—the front seat of his car. “An incisive, sometimes funny, and often provocative contemplation of the art of cinema” (Museum of Modern Art, New York).
ABC Africa
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, France, 2001Friday, November 22 4 PMView DetailsFor his first film shot outside Iran, Kiarostami went to Uganda to document the reality of children orphaned by AIDS. What he found was a network of widows creating a culture of support, in a place devastated by death but still full of life.
Homework
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1989Digital Restoration
Saturday, November 23 12:30 PMView DetailsIn a series of interviews with grade-school boys on the topic of homework, much is revealed on the topic of life. With shorts Breaktime and Orderly or Disorderly.
Fellow Citizen
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 1983Digital Restoration
Sunday, November 24 2 PMView DetailsKiarostami turns footage of a traffic cop beleaguered by demanding drivers into a study of verbal invention, miniature rebellion, and the fine line between order and disorder. With short Tribute to Teachers.
Five Dedicated to Ozu
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, France, Japan, 2003Digital Restoration
Sunday, December 1 4:30 PMIntroduction by Donna HonarpishehView DetailsDedicated to Yasujiro Ozu, Kiarostami’s set of five serene seafront studies is “remarkably captivating, like a perfectly crafted object of contemplation” (Village Voice). With short Roads of Kiarostami.
Víctor Erice–Abbas Kiarostami: Correspondences
Víctor Erice, Abbas Kiarostami
Spain, Iran, 2005–7Saturday, December 7 6 PMView DetailsCreated for a museum exhibition that paired the works of Kiarostami and Víctor Erice, Correspondences is composed of ten “filmed letters” between the two master filmmakers.
Shirin
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, 2008Digital Restoration
Sunday, December 8 4:30 PMIntroduction by Donna HonarpishehView DetailsA film about watching and most of all experiencing film, Shirin features close-ups of 112 Iranian actresses (and Juliette Binoche) as they view—or imagine—a movie. “An illusionist tour de force” (Jonathan Rosenbaum).
Certified Copy
Abbas Kiarostami
France, Italy, Belgium, Iran, 2010Saturday, December 14 6 PMView DetailsJuliette Binoche and William Shimell star in Kiarostami’s playful unspooling of the romance genre, set in a radiant Tuscany where nothing is quite as it seems. Binoche won Best Actress at Cannes for her role in this “brilliant, endlessly fascinating work” (New Yorker).
Like Someone in Love
Abbas Kiarostami
France, Japan, 2012Thursday, December 19 7 PMView DetailsA young escort, her older client, and her jealous lover enact their various roles depending on who’s in front of them in Kiarostami’s last narrative feature, made in Japan. “An enthralling journey” (New York Magazine).
24 Frames
Abbas Kiarostami
Iran, France, 2017Saturday, December 21 4 PMView DetailsKiarostami’s final work strips cinema down to its essence—a single frame—creating a hypnotic meditation on image making and the act of seeing that pays tribute to both cinema and the great director’s other passion, photography.
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