The cast and crew of the play ‘The Striking Session’ directed by the prominent theater director Mohammad Rahmanian held a symbolic ceremony to honor the veteran filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami on his 76th birthday on June 20.
On the third night of their performance at City Theater in Tehran, the play director and actors paid tribute to Kiarostami in his absence as he is currently recuperating at home, after recovering from a series of surgeries that he underwent since March, Honaronline reported.
At the end of the play, Rahmanian asked the audience to stay back for some more time to celebrate Kiarostami’s birthday. “We have prepared a cake and would like to light the candle and take a photo together and send it to him, to remind that him we have not forgotten him even though he is unwell”.
Kiarostami would surely enjoy the photo where a large gathering of audience and cast and crew are pictured. “We pray for him during these nights (of the holy month of Ramadan) to get better.”
In a separate occasion, on June 21, Kiarostami’s birthday, a documentary on the renowned film auteur’s career was unveiled at Charsu Cineplex in Tehran.
‘Long Shot’ directed by Mohsen Sharafinia, is a narration by a number of participants in Kiarostami’s filmmaking workshops in Iran, who talk about how he teaches cinema to others.
A birthday cake was also cut in the presence of cineastes and film fans.
The veteran photographer and documentarian Seifollah Samadian and a friend of Kiarostami’s said his general condition was satisfactory during the past week.
“As a surprise for his birthday, we decided to review his views on directing and filmmaking,” Samadian said. The most important features of Kiarostami as stated by his students in ‘Long Shot’ included confidence, independence, creativity, deep thinking, taking advantage of the state of the art technology while making films cheap and simple, yet with complexity.
Kiarostami will undergo his last surgery in two months and “we hope our country’s veteran director will recover fully,” Samadian said.
Also a screenwriter, photographer, poet, painter, illustrator and graphic designer, Kiarostami has been involved in making over forty films, including shorts, features and documentaries.
He has won numerous awards including the Palme d’Or for ‘Taste of Cherry’ at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 which is Iran’s first and only Golden Palm so far.
