Abbas Kiarostami, the multi-award-winning Iranian director whose 1997 film Taste of Cherry was awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival, has died aged 76.
He shot more than 40 films and won numerous awards worldwide. Despite the censorship of successive regimes, he remained faithful to his country. Silently.
Abbas Kiarostami, the greatest filmmaker to emerge from Iran, died in Paris today.
BY Norman Wilner for Now Toronto
JULY 4, 2016 4:15 PM
Iran’s best filmmaker, who visited Toronto just last fall, could make you feel empathy for characters in absurd situations.
I met Kiarostami in Toronto last fall, when he came into town to launch his Doors Without Keys installation at the Aga Khan Museum, and he seemed as hearty as anyone his age could expect to be, chatting about conceptual art and his endless curiosity about the lives of the people behind the massive doors he’d photographed for the installation.
If you follow world cinema, Kiarostami’s death is a crushing loss. His films were the Platonic ideal of what movies could do, at least according to Roger Ebert’s concept of cinema as “an empathy machine.” He constantly challenged his audience to understand and feel for characters in increasingly absurd situations.
Sources:
- Now Toronto | In Memoriam: Abbas Kiarostami, 1940-2016
- le Desk | Abbas Kiarostami, monument tranquille et vénéré du cinéma iranien
- The Guardian | Abbas Kiarostami, Palme d’Or-winning Iranian film-maker, dies aged 76
Research, Insight & Perspective by A. Maherali
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