http://astore.amazon.com/faridb2002-20
"I believe the films of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami are extraordinary. Words cannot relate my feelings. I suggest you see his films; and then you will see what I mean"
- Akira Kurosawa -
Abbas Kiarostami was born on June 22nd 1940 in Tehran, he was interested in the arts from an early age. He won a painting competition at the age of eighteen, and left home to study at Tehran University's Faculty of Fine Arts. As a designer and illustrator, Kiarostami worked throughout the '60s in advertising, making commercials, designing posters, creating credit titles for films, and illustrating children's books.
In 1969 Kiarostami helped to set up a filmmaking department at the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. The department's debut production was Kiarostami's own first film, "Bread and Alley" (Naan va Koche.)
The department would go on to become one of Iran's most famous film studios, producing not only Kiarostami's films, but also such modern Iranian classics as The Runner (Amir Naderi) and Bashu, the Little Stranger (Bahrab Beyzaii.)
But it was not until the late '80s that his films began to be shown outside Iran. He received his first most important recognition with "Where is the Friend's House?" (Khaneh Doost Kodjast?), winning the Pardo di bronzo at Locarno in 1987. "Life Goes On" (Va Zendegi edameh darad) in 1992 (the first of Kiarostami's films to be shown at the New York Film Festival) won the Rossellini Prize at Cannes, and Through the Olive Trees (Az Mian-e Derhtan-e Zeitoon) 1994 were the films that made Kiarostami's reputation in the West. In 1995 he was part of the jury at the Venice Film Festival and in 1996 he was honored with a retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York.
In 1997 he came to the Cannes Film Festival with "Taste of Cherry" (Taame Gilas), only to walk away with the grand prize, becoming the first Iranian director ever to win the Palme d'Or. He was also awarded the Special Prize of the Jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1999 for "The Wind Will Carry Us". In 2000, at the request of the United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development, he travelled to Uganda to make the documentary ABC Africa, his first film shot on digital video. In 2002 he premiered his newest film, "Ten", at Cannes.
His latest film is "Shirin" , which is now being shown at Venice Film Festival ( August-September 2008. ) Women, are inspected closely watching the story of Khosrow and Shirin, a semi-mythic Persian romance of female self-sacrifice. Three or four times Shirin's travails reduce the entire audience to floods of tears; at other points, the biting of lips, fiddling with headscarves, and expressions of rapt attention tell a sub-verbal narrative of some power.
Kiarostami's pretext for "Shirin" was a short 3-minute experiment he did with "Romeo & Juliet."
Today, Kiarostami is one of the masters of "cinema" , whose early works have rarely been seen; "Bread and Alley" is one of them.
Kiarostami is also a noted photographer and poet. A bilingual collection of more than 200 of his poems "Walking with the Wind" was recently published by Harvard University Press.
for more on Kiarostami
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/kiarostami.html
wondering why the audio is disable! What happened to the original audio track?
bahmankool 2 years ago
Thanks or brining it to my attention. I don't know the answer. This movie has been on youtube for a long time and I am not the only one who put it on. The oders have the sound track. I try to fix it. I may have to upload it again!
faridb2000 2 years ago
Dear Bahman, I think it is fixed now, after writing to you tube and explaining the problem
faridb2000 2 years ago