Kiarostami’s critical look at capitalism

Documentarian and photographer Seifollah Samadian has said that the legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami revealed his critical look at capitalism in his 2012 movie “Like Someone in Love”.

Some members of the of film’s crew came together on the second day of the commemoration organized by the 35th Fajr International Film Festival at Tehran’s Charsu Cineplex on Sunday to share their memories of their collaboration with Kiarostami.

Among them were program producer Kenzo Horikoshi, cinematographer Katsumi Yanagishima, assistant editor Shogo Yokoyama and assistant director and interpreter Shohreh Golparian.

“We see his bitter view, which is expressed in a peaceful way with no sign of sloganeering, on capitalist society,” said Samadian who is the manager of the commemoration program. 

“This is what distinguished Kiarostami from other filmmakers,” he noted.

He made comparisons between Kiarostami and Japanese filmmakers and said, “Japan has many great filmmakers who are close to Kiarostami in their styles.”

“He used to work with groups with fewer members and this poses the question that, as an Iranian filmmaker in the industrialized Japanese society, how could he deal with the cultural differences,” he asked.

Kiarostami’s method was very different from what Japanese filmmakers followed, Golparian answered.

“His Japanese colleagues were absolutely amazed when they saw that Kiarostami was making his film without a screenplay,” she added.

“He asked the film’s crew to reveal nothing about the scenario to the members of the cast, and this was really amazing to them,” she said.

Horikoshi who was also the distributor of all Kiarostami’s films in Japan talked about his interest in Japan.

“Kiarostami made about 15 trips to Japan and stayed there past what was planned each time; he was interested in Japan and enjoyed his stays there,” he said.

“I also visited him in Venice, Berlin and several other places, but when he was in Japan he was much happier,” he added.

The closing day of the commemoration of Kiarostami was held on Monday with a speech by Colombian film expert Estephania Bonnett Alonso.

She is the cofounder of the Black Factory Cinema, a production house devoted to film production and filmmaking training, which also organized Kiarostami’s workshops in the Spanish-speaking countries.

In addition, Negar Eskandarfar, the director of the Karnameh Art and Cultural Institute in Tehran, also delivered a lecture. Kiarostami arranged his workshops in Iran under the auspices of the institute.

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