Guardian reviews Kiarostami's ‘24 Frames’

The UK-based newspaper The Guardian has praised Abbas Kiarostami's last work ‘24 Frames’ after being screened at the 70th Cannes Film Festival in France.

“The Iranian director has produced a posthumous marvel with this bizarre, experimental ghost-film that even puts his hated cinema seats to decent use,” the Guardian’s website noted down on May 23.

Xan Brooks, a freelance writer and broadcaster specializing in cinema, who hosts the weekly Guardian Film Show, wrote a review on Kiarostami's ‘24 Frames’ in honor of the late director after the screening of his last film at Cannes.

Shortly analyzing Kiarostami’s ‘Like Someone in Love’ at Cannes 2012, Brooks described the late filmmaker’s ’24 Frames’ as “a mesmerizing sign-off.”

Kiarostami’s ‘24 Frames’ is a “response to the paintings and photographs that inspired him, prompted by the desire to hold the frame steady so as to watch each image come to life, each drama play on,” he added.

Being completely entranced by the film, the critic said ‘24 Frames’ is rigorously experimental and demands patience as well as engagement to grab something rich and strange in the man’s unconscious mind.

“Audaciously, posthumously, the director has even found a way to make a bonus of his hated cinema seats... Kiarostami has gone but the work lives on. His unconscious, I think, has affected us all,” the Guardian writer concluded.

Kiarostami was a multitalented artist and an exceptional man who joyfully embraced life. He was winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival in 1997 for his film ‘Taste of Cherry’, passing away on July 4, 2016.

He is mostly known as a screenwriter, film editor, art director and producer as well as a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator and graphic designer.

The cinematic works by the internationally acclaimed filmmaker have been hailed by various festivals around the world.

Several prestigious festivals and film events have already honored the noted Iranian director as well as paying homage to Kiarostami by presenting retrospectives of his works.

MG/MMF