Abbas Kiarostami
Abbas Kiarostami
Abbas Kiarostami; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active film-maker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker trilogy, Close-Up, Taste of Cherry– which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year – and The Wind Will Carry Us. In his later works, Certified Copyand Like Someone in Love, he...
NationalityIranian
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth22 June 1940
Usually when I write a script, I have in mind some real people that I'm writing about, who don't always act in the film afterward.
I don't have very complete scripts for my films. I have a general outline and a character in my mind, and I make no notes until I find the character who's in my mind in reality.
I really enjoy listening to stories. I remember them and keep them in my mind.
It seems that film-makers are being divided between those working in digital and those who are not. I think it's not something predetermined - it all depends on what project we have in mind, and on that basis we choose the medium.
In my mind, there isn't as much of a distinction between documentary and fiction as there is between a good movie and a bad one.
Usually when I take my films to festivals, I feel incredibly anxious about them. I wonder how it will be received, how the audience will react. I feel deeply responsible for them.
I think life is so difficult to catch, it's so furtive, that a copy, a film, can in no way catch it and represent it.
I was mentioning with the digital camera, maybe this new fashion of filmmaking gives a closer look of what life may be like. But it's still nothing but a copy.
I don't like reverse-angle shots - I find them very fake and very untruthful to the viewer.
This [the earthquake] was a very big influence on me, and the issue of life and death from then on does recur in my films.
My films have been progressing towards a certain kind of minimalism, even though it was never intended. Elements which can be eliminated have been eliminated.
People have curiosity, they have intelligence, they have interest in understanding their peers. But producers and directors of cinema have decided that the seats in the theaters have been made to transform people's minds to lazy minds.
Having an international voice is not really about whether we speak Persian or any other language.
Whether you consider me a master filmmaker or not, I do it with my intuition and my vision, my experience as a storyteller.