The Essentials: Abbas Kiarostami’s Best Films

“The Wind Will Carry Us” (1999)
Bafflingly, Kiarostami has a reputation among some of his critics for being overly serious, even po-faced, but those who think this clearly haven’t seen “The Wind Will Carry Us.” His second international festival success in a row, winning the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, the picture once again blends truth and fiction, documentary and drama, but to effect more dryly funny than anything in his career to date. Following The Engineer (a filmmaker of sort), who’s come to a small village to document the death of a woman who may be as much as 100 years old. Again, the central characters’ motives remain cloudy for much of the film, even to himself, and it’s one of the most genuinely spiritual films you could ever hope to see, but never in a way that feels preachy or forced. It’s probably the director’s most formally perfect work as well — it’s the last time he worked on film, as opposed to digital, and the collaboration here with great Iranian DoP Mahmoud Kalari makes you wish that he’ll return to it one day soon. Somewhat undervalued on release, history’s seen it take its place as Kiarostami’s most personal, and possibly even his best, work. [A+]

“Ten” (2002)
Returning the director To Cannes and starring female director Mania Akbari, this 2002 entry sported a simple premise: 10 car conversations are accounted with two consumer DV cameras attached to both sides of the vehicle. While it may sound amateur in scope and overly-talky, it’s actually a nonpareil, private look into the social (and political) climate of modern-day Iran. These non-actors dig deep and expose themselves, and one of the most memorable instances involves a teary, jilted woman removing her headscarf and revealing a shaved head — one of the first (if not first) times this has been done on film in the country. There’s also the mother-son relationship, one that’s severely tainted by an on-going divorce that the boy isn’t taking particularly well, something that is universally relatable. The youth vocalizes his frustrations without any sort of dignity or censorship — exactly as a child would — and the result is something a bit off-putting, but real. Despite glowing reviews, the single-setting and raw presentation isn’t for everyone, but it’s manna from heaven to fans. [B+]

“Certified Copy” (2010)
With Kiarostami finding life increasingly difficult in Iran (his films haven’t been shown there in a decade, and his friend Jafar Panahi receiving a disgraceful six-year prison sentence), it was only a matter of time before he started to look outside Iran for subject matter, and, following a contribution to the portmanteau picture “Tickets,” it came in the Cannes debut of the excellent “Certified Copy.” Casting international star Juliette Binoche, a long time friend of Kiarostami, who also appeared in his experimental film “Shirin,” was bound to raise the film’s profile, and it’s the director’s most accessible film by about a million miles — if you’re unfamiliar with his work, this is really where you should start. A swooning romance, sort of, pairing Binoche with British opera singer William Shimell (in a role once linked to Robert De Niro, believe it or not), it’s as moving and adult a depiction of a relationship as we’ve seen in a long time, while still remaining identifiably Kiarostami. While it’s perhaps slighter than the very best of his Iranian work, it showed that Kiarostami could surprise even in his 70s. [A-]

The Rest: Kiarostami has a body of work stretching back to the early 1970s, much of which was long unavailable in the U.S, but has gradually begun to sneak out. 1974’s “The Traveler,” for instance, is available on the Criterion edition of “Close-Up,” while his first proper feature “The Report” or “Gozaresh” (starring future Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo) is on YouTube — you can watch that here.

The 1970s and 1980s saw regular shorts, and his first forays into documentary with “Fellow Citizen” and “First Graders,” while 1989 full-length documentary “Homework” is particularly well-regarded. A true film fan, Kiarostami’s also collaborated on the portmanteau pictures “Lumière and Company” and “Tickets,” the latter with Ken Loach and Ermanno Olmi — Kiarostami’s segment being, to our eyes, the strongest of the three.

He’s also continued to work in documentary both traditional — the moving, powerful “ABC Africa” — and highly experimental — the Ozu-influenced “Five,” the autobiographical “10 on Ten” and “The Roads Of Kiarostami.” His features can verge on the experimental as well — 2008’s “Shirin” focuses entirely on the faces of the women watching a theater performance of a famous Persian poem, and is thoroughly fascinating, if something of a slog to even the most dedicated fan.

And most recently there was 2012’s Japan-set “Like Someone In Love,” which sadly proved to be his final film. It’s something of a companion piece to “Certified Copy” in many ways, and suffers somewhat from the comparison, or at least it did on first viewing. But with his passing, it’s the first of the many of his films that we plan to return to.