Abbas Kiarostami Masterclass

Kiarostami is widely regarded as one of the finest directors in the world. Channel 4's Cinema Iran season looks at the work of this internationally acclaimed director.

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WHO IS HE?
Born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940, Kiarostami is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest living directors. He came to the world's attention with the multi-award winning Where Is My Friend's House?, a poignant rites of passage tale of a schoolboy who campaigns against his friend from being expelled. Ten years later his 1997 film A Taste of Cherry about a taxi driver contemplating suicide earned him criticism at home but the Palme d'Or at Cannes. In 1999, after having won 46 international film prizes, he announced that he would accept no more. In addition to directing, Kiarostami also writes, produces, and is a renowned landscape photographer, installation artist and poet.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
Several end of the millennium polls voted him the most important filmmaker of the 90s. His work is not in the tradition of narrative driven filmmaking, it's often idiosyncratic, draws attention to the filmmaking process, and frequently blurs the boundaries of documentary and drama, so the audience is left unsure of what the director's stand point is. And this is precisely his desire; Kiarostami wants the audience to have an active, questioning relationship with his films, and for this reason alone he is a treasured re-inventor of modern cinema. Also, at a time when neo-conservative forces would like to demonise Iran as a land of terrorist sponsoring religious fanatics, Kiarostami and his colleagues show us the reality: people dealing with the same frustrated desires, casual cruelties and tantalizing hopes as the rest of us.