Book on Kiarostami’s Cinema Unveiled at FIFF

A book on the late auteur Abbas Kiarostami and his cinema was unveiled Monday at the Cinema and Theater Faculty, Tehran University of Art, concurrent with the 36th Fajr International Film Festival.

The book is a compilation by Seyyed Emad Hosseini, who heads the Research and Publishing Committee of FIFF, the festival website wrote.

It includes articles and translated material written about the celebrated filmmaker whose oeuvre includes Where is the Friend’s House?, Life and Nothing More, Through the Olive Trees, Close Up, A Taste of Cherry, The Wind Will Carry Us, Ten, Shirin, Certified Copy, and Like Someone in Love.

Titled ‘An Alternative Cinema’, the book is one of the first full-length studies of Kiarostami’s work. A unique and resplendent collaboration featuring two distinct but complementing perspectives, the book places Kiarostami and his films in a national and international perspective.

A pioneer in Iranian cinema and considered one of the most influential filmmakers, Kiarostami wrote and directed more than 20 films. He became the first Iranian director to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes festival for his film Taste of Cherry.

According to Hosseini, the book includes eight articles and three interviews by Iranian and foreign journalists and authors. It is a penetrating study of Kiarostami’s life and work that engages a cross-cultural and religious dialogue, for instance, with Nacim Pak-Shiraz, a scholar at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Hosseini says Kiarostami’s works have traces of Iranian culture and identity; however, he was one of the world’s greatest directors who won numerous awards at international festivals for his films that also had a global perspective.

The FIFF is underway at Charsou Cineplex in Tehran until April 27.