Ta'm e guilass (1997)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Abbas Kiarostami

Writer:

Abbas Kiarostami (writer)

Release Date:

30 January 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

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...

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Hole | Long Take | Iran | Suicide Attempt

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Homayoun Ershadi	...	Mr. Badii
Abdolrahman Bagheri	...	Mr. Bagheri
Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari	...	Soldier
Safar Ali Moradi	...	The soldier
Mir Hossein Noori	...	The seminarian
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ahmad Ansari

Directed by
Abbas Kiarostami

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Abbas Kiarostami		writer

Produced by
Abbas Kiarostami	....	producer

Cinematography by
Homayun Payvar

Film Editing by
Abbas Kiarostami

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Hassan Yektapanah	....	first assistant director

Sound Department
Mohammad Reza Delpak	....	sound designer
Jahangir Mirshekari	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
Alireza Ansarian	....	camera operator

Production Companies

• Abbas Kiarostami Productions
• CiBy 2000

Distributors

• Argentina Video Home (Argentina) (video)
• Artificial Eye
• Atalanta Filmes (Portugal)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Film Corp. (1999) (DVD)
• Cult Filmes (Brazil) (DVD)
• Cult Filmes (Brazil) (VHS)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (all media)
• Mongrel Media (Canada)
• Primer Plano Film Group (Argentina)
• RCV Film Distribution (Belgium)
• RCV Film Distribution (Luxembourg)
• RCV Film Distribution (Netherlands)
• Vértigo Films (Spain)
• Zeitgeist Films (1998) (USA) (subtitled)

Also Known As:

A Taste of Cherry (USA)
Le goût de la cerise (France)
Taste of Cherry (USA) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

France | Iran

Language:

Persian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Brazil:12 | Finland:S | Hungary:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:Btl | UK:PG | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Tehran, Iran

Company:

Abbas Kiarostami Productions

Trivia:

Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 1997 (#06).

Quotes:

Mr. Bagheri: If you look at the four seasons, each season brings fruit. In summer, there's fruit, in autumn, too. Winter brings different fruit and spring, too. No mother can fill her fridge with such a variety of fruit for her children. No mother can do as much for her children as God does for His creatures. You want to refuse all that? You want to give it all up? You want to give up the taste of cherries?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Wo de fu qin mu qin (1999)

Cinematic Audacity

This is film at its simplest: pure cinema. And then he pulls out the rug from underneath you. The director removes the event from the film, in doing so calls attention not to what the protagonist's action will be, but rather the reason for the action. Nor does he make the reason specific, though the concerns are human, universal, which transcends the specific. Foremost this film is about cinema, cinema and the what it means to be, to exist.