Taste of Cherry (1997) by Abbas Kiarostami (Movie Discussion)
Details
"A winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Taste of Cherry is an exemplary case of simple truth told with elusive art — a work of existentialist grandeur whose meanings are both wholly ordinary and ineffable. Road movie as philosophical inquiry, the film follows Badii, a middle-aged man deep in grief, as he drives around the outskirts of Tehran looking for someone who will accept money to bury him if he succeeds in committing suicide. He gives lifts to three candidates — a young Kurdish soldier, an Afghan seminarian, and an aged Turkish taxidermist — to whom he proposes this grim task (the ethnic origins of the three lend the film both allegorical and political import). Every Kiarostami film honours its audience with myriad mysteries and earned affirmations, but Taste of Cherry is that rare thing: a private, immensely moving inquest into the value of life and the entreaty of death." (TIFF: Toronto International Film Festival)
"The first Iranian film to win the Palme d’Or, this austere, emotionally complex drama by the great Abbas Kiarostami follows the enigmatic Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) as he drives around the hilly outskirts of Tehran looking for someone who will agree to bury him after he commits suicide, a taboo under Islam. Extended conversations with three passengers (a soldier, a seminarian, and a taxidermist) elicit different views on mortality and individual choice. Operating at once as a closely observed, realistic story and a fable populated by archetypal figures, Taste of Cherry challenges the viewer to consider what often goes unexamined in everyday life." (Criterion)
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Let's discuss Taste of Cherry (1997), recently voted the 93rd greatest movie of all time in Sight and Sound's international survey of movie directors.
Two other films by Abbas Kiarostami also made the list's Top 100: Where Is The Friend's House? at #72 and Close-Up at #9.
Please watch the movie in advance. You can stream it here for free. Press the "CC" or "Captions" button in the video player to turn on English subtitles.
The New York Times's video review.
Check out other film discussions in the group on Wednesday, Friday, and sometimes Sundays/Mondays.
(We recently discussed another Iranian film, The House Is Black (1963) by Forugh Farrokhzad.)