Taste of Cherry

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

1997 / 99min / 35mm

Kiarostami’s spare but emotionally complex road movie accompanies middle-aged Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) as he drives through the hilly outskirts of Tehran, searching for someone to rescue or bury him. Along the way, he picks up three passengers, all from different walks of life, all eliciting different views on choice and mortality, with Kiarostami himself occupying the passenger seat offscreen. Often held up as one of the Iranian master’s finest outings, this delicately alluring meditation on life and death was originally released theatrically in the US by Zeitgeist Films after winning the 1997 Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Part of Zeitgeist Films at 35