Abbas Kiarostami

Directing

Abbas Kiarostami

Born 1940-06-22 · Tehran, Iran

Abbas Kiarostami (Persian: عباس کیارستمی [ʔæbˌbɒːs kijɒːɾostæˈmi] ; June 22, 1940 – July 4, 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker trilogy (1987–1994), Close-Up (1990), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), and Taste of Cherry (1997), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year. In later works, Certified Copy (2010) and Like Someone in Love (2012), he filmed for the first time outside Iran: in Italy and Japan, respectively. His films Where Is the Friend's Home? (1987), Close-Up, and The Wind Will Carry Us were ranked among the 100 best foreign films in a 2018 critics' poll by BBC Culture. Close-Up was also ranked one of the 50 greatest movies of all time in the famous decennial Sight & Sound poll conducted in 2012. Kiarostami had worked extensively as a screenwriter, film editor, art director, and producer and had designed credit titles and publicity material. He was also a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator, and graphic designer. He was part of a generation of filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave, a Persian cinema movement that started in the late 1960s and emphasized the use of poetic dialogue and allegorical storytelling dealing with political and philosophical issues. Kiarostami had a reputation for using child protagonists, for documentary-style narrative films, for stories that take place in rural villages, and for conversations that unfold inside cars, using stationary mounted cameras. He is also known for his use of Persian poetry in the dialogue, titles, and themes of his films. Kiarostami's films contain a notable degree of ambiguity, an unusual mixture of simplicity and complexity, and often a mix of fictional and documentary elements. The concepts of change and continuity, in addition to the themes of life and death, play a major role in Kiarostami's works. Description above from the Wikipedia article Abbas Kiarostami, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Close-Up poster
8.0

This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.

Close-Up

1990

Kurosawa's Way poster
5.8

Eleven major film makers from Europe, America and Asia talk about Akira Kurosawa and discover surprising influences on their own work.

Kurosawa's Way

2011

Through the Olive Trees poster
7.4

When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.

Through the Olive Trees

1995

Abbas Kiarostami: A Report poster
4.8

A look at the formation of the career of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

Abbas Kiarostami: A Report

2013

Guest poster
6.0

Filmmaker José Luis Guerin documents his experience during a year of traveling as a guest of film festivals to present his previous film. What emerges is a wonderfully humane and sincere portrayal of the people that he meets when he goes off the beaten track in some of the world's major cities.

Guest

2011

TropiAbbas poster
10.0

An Iranian filmmaker, a female taxi driver and a class a about cinema.

TropiAbbas

2005

What Is Cinema? poster
6.4

Using the words and ideas of great filmmakers, from archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bresson to new interviews with Mike Leigh, David Lynch, and Jonas Mekas, Oscar-winning filmmaker Chuck Workman shows what these filmmakers and others do that can't be expressed in words - but only in cinema.

What Is Cinema?

2013

Around Five poster
NR

Abbas Kiarostami on his film Five Dedicated to Ozu.

Around Five

2005

Vida poster
NR

Acclaimed Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami, delivers a film workshop in Bogotá, the filmmakers conclude by proposing a short film in 10 days. Diego, one of the directors of the workshop, as scouting, meets a young shy librarian named Vida , who dreams of being an actress.

Vida

2014

A Walk with Kiarostami poster
5.6

U.S.-based film professor Jamsheed Akrami talks to Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami in an inpromptu video interview, which offers a frank and funny view of Kiarostami rarely seen before.

A Walk with Kiarostami

2003

Leech poster
NR

Leeches a film by bahman kiarostami

Leech

2021

Homework poster
7.5

Young male students at a local Iranian school are asked about their feelings on homework.

Homework

1989

Abbas Kiarostami: Truths and Dreams poster
7.0

A documentary about Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami first aired on the French television series Cinema de Notre Temps.

Abbas Kiarostami: Truths and Dreams

1994

ABC Africa poster
4.8

Abbas Kiarostami shoots a documentary about the AIDS crisis in Uganda.

ABC Africa

2001

Print poster
NR

A short documentary from footage of the making of Kiarostami's 2017 film 24 FRAMES.

Print

2019

In Praise of the Seventy Years Old poster
NR

This interview-based documentary is made on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Aydin Aghdashloo, Mohammad Ehsaei and Abbas Kiarostami, and deals with "aging" from the point of view of these three prominent friends and artists.

In Praise of the Seventy Years Old

2010

Ahmad Shamlou: Master Poet of Liberty poster
7.7

A documentary about the most important modern Iranian poet and intellectual icon. Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou talks about his poetry, the world of poetry, and his life. Filmed over a two year period from 1996 to 1998.

Ahmad Shamlou: Master Poet of Liberty

1999

10 on Ten poster
6.3

"10 on Ten" is a 2004 Iranian documentary film directed by Abbas Kiarostami. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. Looking to his own art for inspiration, Abbas Kiarostami reflects on his techniques of filming and how he taped certain sequences in "Ten" in 2001.

10 on Ten

2004

Bukhara Chronicles poster
NR

Ali Dehbashi, the editor-in-chief of Bukhara Magazine, is forced to vacate his rented office. While struggling with asthma and the pressure of publishing a special issue dedicated to Ferdowsi, he continues to honor artists and visit ailing cultural figures. Homeless and unwell, his devotion to Iran’s literary legacy keeps him going.

Bukhara Chronicles

2025

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Sohanak

1997

Close-Up Long Shot poster
6.4

Hossain Sabzian and some of his associates discuss his character, his life-long obsession with cinema and his attitude towards the film he starred in, "Close-Up" (1990).

Close-Up Long Shot

1996

A Good Time for Tragedy poster
5.0

A documentary dealing with the life of Ahmadreza Ahmadi, an Iranian Poet.

A Good Time for Tragedy

2005

76 Minutes and 15 seconds with Abbas Kiarostami poster
6.8

Kiarostami as we have never really known him before, despite the transformative power of his many movies. Filmmaker and close friend Samadian avoids the talking heads of so many artistic memoirs to offer more candid clips of Kiarostami the man: lover of poetry, convivial with friends, engaging landscapes on and off screen, laughing with other artists. The artist and visionary emerges more clearly but so does a loving, wondrous man whom we will miss now as much as the auteur.

76 Minutes and 15 seconds with Abbas Kiarostami

2016

Víctor Erice – Abbas Kiarostami: Correspondences poster
7.5

Relationships and multiple influences between two great directors of modern cinema.

Víctor Erice – Abbas Kiarostami: Correspondences

2007

Behind the camera

Taste of Cherry poster
7.7

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

Taste of Cherry

1997

Taste of Cherry poster
7.7

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

Taste of Cherry

1997

Taste of Cherry poster
7.7

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

Taste of Cherry

1997

To Each His Own Cinema poster
6.4

Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.

To Each His Own Cinema

2007

Where Is The Friend's House? poster
7.9

An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.

Where Is The Friend's House?

1987

Where Is The Friend's House? poster
7.9

An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.

Where Is The Friend's House?

1987

Lumière & Company poster
6.3

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

Lumière & Company

1995

Close-Up poster
8.0

This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.

Close-Up

1990

Close-Up poster
8.0

This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.

Close-Up

1990

Venice 70: Future Reloaded poster
5.0

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

Venice 70: Future Reloaded

2013

Certified Copy poster
7.0

In Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged English writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano.

Certified Copy

2010

Certified Copy poster
7.0

In Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged English writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano.

Certified Copy

2010

Like Someone in Love poster
6.9

An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.

Like Someone in Love

2012

Like Someone in Love poster
6.9

An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.

Like Someone in Love

2012

The Bread and Alley poster
6.5

After returning from an errand to get bread, a young boy encounters a dog that frightens him making the journey to get home more difficult than he could’ve imagined.

The Bread and Alley

1970

The Bread and Alley poster
6.5

After returning from an errand to get bread, a young boy encounters a dog that frightens him making the journey to get home more difficult than he could’ve imagined.

The Bread and Alley

1970

The Wind Will Carry Us poster
7.1

Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.

The Wind Will Carry Us

1999

The Wind Will Carry Us poster
7.1

Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.

The Wind Will Carry Us

1999

The Wind Will Carry Us poster
7.1

Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.

The Wind Will Carry Us

1999

Through the Olive Trees poster
7.4

When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.

Through the Olive Trees

1995

Through the Olive Trees poster
7.4

When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.

Through the Olive Trees

1995

Through the Olive Trees poster
7.4

When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.

Through the Olive Trees

1995

Life, and Nothing More… poster
7.7

After the earthquake of Guilan, a film director and his son travel to the devastated area to search for the actors from the movie the director made there a few years previously. In their search, they see how people who have lost everything in the earthquake still have hope and try to live life to the fullest.

Life, and Nothing More…

1992

Life, and Nothing More… poster
7.7

After the earthquake of Guilan, a film director and his son travel to the devastated area to search for the actors from the movie the director made there a few years previously. In their search, they see how people who have lost everything in the earthquake still have hope and try to live life to the fullest.

Life, and Nothing More…

1992