Taste of Cherry (1997)

An Iranian man drives his truck in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.

Director:

Abbas Kiarostami

Writer:

Abbas Kiarostami

Stars:

Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari

3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Credited 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

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

suicide | driving a car | conversation in a car | iran | gay man seduces straight man | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

sourehcinema Zeitgeist Film [United States]

Country:

Iran France

Language:

Persian

Release Date:

26 November 1997 (France)

Also Known As:

Taste of Cherry

Filming Locations:

Tehran, Iran

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,688, 22 March 1998, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$311,873, 22 November 1998

Company Credits

Production Co:

Abbas Kiarostami Productions, CiBy 2000, Kanun parvaresh fekri

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film's coda was to a certain extent unplanned, according to an interview with Kiarostami. After they had filmed preliminary versions of the final scene, they did the final scene proper, but the lab accidentally destroyed these final reels. Kiarostami then decided that the off-focus and colors of the test reels worked, and used those instead.

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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.

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Quotes

Mr. Badii: I don't want to give you a gun to kill me. I'm giving you a spade, a spade.

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Connections

Spoofed in Lips to Lips (2000)

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Soundtracks

St. James Infirmary
(uncredited)
Often attributed to Irving Mills
Performed by Louis Armstrong

User Reviews

A great movie about life & death

I have watched many films dealing with the theme "life & death". But this is the greatest one. The story is simple (even incomplete) but I think Abbas tells us too much.

Through the dialogue between different people from different classes, everyone has his own attitude about "life & death". I think we can't say which is right & which is wrong. Abbas only gives it to us & let us think for ourselves.

Every scene is simple & ordinary, but has a certain strange fascination. I have seen "Through The Olive Trees" before (also directed by Abbas). To be honest, I don't like it, although it's said to be a good film. But this one is different. "Go see it" is what I want to say.