Late Kiarostami commemorated on his birth anniversary
TEHRAN.(HONARONLINE) Several cultural figures and institutions paid tribute to the late legendary filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami on his birth anniversary which was on June 22.
“The art of cinema is a language, and the late Kiarostami was a thinker and writer of the language and literature of cinema,” said Iran’s prominent actor Shahab Hosseini.
He made the statement during the second edition of 5 Photo Award, which was held for the birth anniversary of the late Abbas Kiarostami, in Cinema Museum of Iran on June 22.
The 5 Photo Award is an international video art and photography festival, in honor of Kiarostami, held every year on June 22.
Representatives of ten embassies including the Netherlands, Romania, France, Austria and Australia attended the ceremony.
“I am very happy that I had the opportunity to talk about Abbas Kiarostami. The art of cinema is rooted in the perceptions we all have of life and we use different ways to show these perceptions. We all choose other languages, after our mother tongue, to communicate these perceptions to others,” Hosseini added.
“The art of cinema is a language and has its own rules. Everyone has to find abilities and speak in other languages, but the important thing is how we want to convey that language. Photo is very important because it shows the photographer’s point of view on a subject. We can also consider the art of cinema as a language. Kiarostami was a thinker and writer of the language and literature of cinema,” Hosseini added.
In addition, Iranian director and cinematographer Seifollah Samadian released footage on Kiarostami to commemorate the birth anniversary of the world-famous director.
The six-minute video, which was published by ISNA news agency on Tuesday, is part of a 55-minute film titled, ‘Abbas Kiarostami is Working’ by Samadian.
The film was made at the request of the Pompidou Centre in France, ifilmtv.com reported.
It includes photos and videos of Kiarostami, taken by Samadian as his friend and colleague, as well as the behind-the-scenes of Kiarostami’s films.
The film is being screened at an exhibition themed on Kiarostami, which is underway in the Centre Pompidou.
The exhibition, which will last until July 26, is screening various films by Kiarostami.
Iran’s graphic illustrator Behzad Khorshidi also released a poster featuring the portrait of the late director.
The poster aims at showing Kiarostami’s look at art, the designer added.
Speaking about the features of the design, Khorshidi added that design is formed by a combination of abstract illustrations, and the dissolve of the single trees which Kiarostami depicted during his life as a symbol of his unique art. The poster uses a combination of green and white background reminiscent of Mahour Hill in Kiarostami’s ‘Where Is the Friend’s Home’.
The Iranian director, poet, photographer was internationally praised for some of his films in the latter years of the 20th century, including ‘Close-Up’ (1990), ‘The Wind Will Carry Us’ (1999), and ‘A Taste of Cherry’ (1997), for which he won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
He was among a generation of filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave Cinema, a cinematic movement that started in the mid-60s and featured poetic dialogue and allegorical storytelling of political and philosophical issues.
After months of illness, Kiarostami died at the age of 76 in a Paris hospital in July 2016.