Australian Author Surveys Kiarostami’s Film Philosophy

A recently published book ‘Abbas Kiarostami and Film Philosophy’ deal with the internationally acclaimed filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

The title was originally written by Mathew Abbott, a lecturer in philosophy at the Federation University in Australia and published by Edinburg University Press in 2016. It is rendered into Persian by Saleh Najafi.

Abbot has a doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Sydney. He has taught philosophy, film, aesthetics and poetry at the Australian National University in Canberra. He is a researcher of modern European philosophy, political philosophy, critical theory and aesthetics, Honaronline reported.

According to Amazon.com, in the book, Abbott presents a powerful new film philosophy through the film of the Iranian director. He argues that Kiarostami’s films indulge in cinematic thinking. “They do not just expand on existing philosophical ideas, but do real philosophical work.”

Crossing the divide between analytic and continental philosophy, he draws on Ludwig Wittgenstein, Stanley Cavell, John McDowell, Alice Crary, Noël Carroll, Giorgio Agamben, and Martin Heidegger, bringing out the thinking at work in Kiarostami’s films, namely ‘Taste of Cherry’, ‘The Wind Will Carry Us’, ‘ABC Africa’, ‘Ten’, ‘Five’, ‘Shirin’, ‘Certified Copy’ and ‘Like Someone in Love’.”

Born in Tehran, Kiarostami (1940-2016) was a film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer and film producer. His first film ‘Where Is the Friend’s Home?’ (1987) was awarded the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. His ‘Close-Up’ (1990) is ranked 42nd in British Film Institute’s Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time.

Penned by French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, ‘Abbas Kiarostami: The Evidence of Film’ is another title about the Iranian auteur whose second edition of Persian translation has recently hit the domestic book market.

The original book was published by Yves Gevaert Publication in Belgium in 2001. It was translated by Manouchehr Din-Parast and was made available in the book market shortly after Kiarostami’s death in Paris in July last year.