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Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural 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.
Director:
Abbas Kiarostami
Stars:
Behzad Dorani,
Noghre Asadi,
Roushan Karam Elmi
In Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged British writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano. While there, a chance question reveals something deeper.
Director:
Abbas Kiarostami
Stars:
Juliette Binoche,
William Shimell,
Jean-Claude Carrière
The movie focuses on one of the events in Zendegi Edame Darad (1992), and explores the relationship between the movie director, and the actors. The local actors play a couple who got ... See full summary »
Director:
Abbas Kiarostami
Stars:
Mohamad Ali Keshavarz,
Farhad Kheradmand,
Zarifeh Shiva
The whole village knows that Mashti Hassan loves his cow to death. One day he goes to the Tehran. His cow dies. The villagers are afraid of what might happen once Hassan finds out his cow is dead. What will happen when he finds out?
Director:
Dariush Mehrjui
Stars:
Ezzatolah Entezami,
Mahin Shahabi,
Ali Nassirian
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
When an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes ... See full summary »
Director:
Majid Majidi
Stars:
Mohammad Amir Naji,
Maryam Akbari,
Kamran Dehghan
In the remote Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father--a man they only know through a single photograph--resurfaces.
Director:
Andrey Zvyagintsev
Stars:
Vladimir Garin,
Ivan Dobronravov,
Konstantin Lavronenko
Hamoon's wife is leaving him. He is also unsuccessfully trying to finish his Ph.D. thesis. He is forced to reexamine his life. In a series of flashbacks and dreams, Hamoon tries to figure ... See full summary »
A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his wife and son four years before... See full summary »
Director:
Wim Wenders
Stars:
Harry Dean Stanton,
Sam Berry,
Dean Stockwell
During the Iran-Iraq War, Bashu, a young boy loses his house and all his family. Scared, he sneaks into a truck that is leaving the area. He gets off the truck in the Northern part of the ... See full summary »
Director:
Bahram Beizai
Stars:
Susan Taslimi,
Parvis Pourhosseini,
Adnan Afravian
Middle-aged Mr.Badii is planning to commit suicide and desperately seeks anyone to assist him - he has already dug out the grave in the mountains, but the assistant will have to bury him when he will do the deed. He asks Kurd soldier, Afghan seminarian, but everyone refuses by some reason. Finally he finds an old Turkish taxidermist, who has a sick son and previously attempted suicide himself, and he agrees to assist Badii. Written by
Anonymous
Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 1997 (#06). See more »
Goofs
In the opening scene, as Mr. Badhi is driving past laborers looking for work, the same middle-aged white haired man, wearing a checkered sweater vest, is seen twice. See more »
Quotes
Mr. Badii:
I don't want to give you a gun to kill me. I'm giving you a spade, a spade.
See more »
I was prepared to dislike this film. Instead, I wound up fascinated. The state can't help Mr. Badii, the church can't help him...and even though nature, in the form of Mr. Bagheri, tries, we do not know if it succeeds. Absolutely fascinating. It shows that a director doesn't need $200,000,000 and a raft of special effects and explosions to make a good film.
As for the shot-on-video ending, it's entirely possible that it's there to appease the Iranian censors. "Look! Here's Mr. Badii! Alive and well. It's just a movie!" Another subtle commentary on the state of affairs in Iran today, I'll wager. At least, that's how I chose to see it.
It seems to me that the title reflects Douglas Adams' techniques for flying--fall, and then distract yourself so that you don't hit the ground. It's not that the taste of cherry makes life worth living, per se, it's that simple things can distract you from your cares.
This movie was well-shot, well-directed, well-acted, and well-written. Highly recommended.
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I was prepared to dislike this film. Instead, I wound up fascinated. The state can't help Mr. Badii, the church can't help him...and even though nature, in the form of Mr. Bagheri, tries, we do not know if it succeeds. Absolutely fascinating. It shows that a director doesn't need $200,000,000 and a raft of special effects and explosions to make a good film.
As for the shot-on-video ending, it's entirely possible that it's there to appease the Iranian censors. "Look! Here's Mr. Badii! Alive and well. It's just a movie!" Another subtle commentary on the state of affairs in Iran today, I'll wager. At least, that's how I chose to see it.
It seems to me that the title reflects Douglas Adams' techniques for flying--fall, and then distract yourself so that you don't hit the ground. It's not that the taste of cherry makes life worth living, per se, it's that simple things can distract you from your cares.
This movie was well-shot, well-directed, well-acted, and well-written. Highly recommended.