Bulgaria to honor Iran director Kiarostami

The 9th edition of the Sofia Menar Filmfest in Bulgaria has planned to pay tribute to late acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

The festival’s website recently announced the event is set to screen four films by the late Iranian director in January.

The films to go on screen at this part of the festival are ‘Take Me Home’, ‘Taste of Cherry’, ‘The Wind Will Carry Us’ and ‘Through the Olive Trees’.

The 16-minute ‘Take Me Home’ is about a little boy who drops his football at the top of a narrow stone stairway outside his home in Southern Italy. As the ball bounces downwards, our eyes are drawn along with it, in an endless rhythm from side to side, as it travels to the bottom. Each perfectly framed tableau could stand as an individual piece of artwork.

The 95-minute ‘Taste of Cherry’ tells the story of a middle-aged man who is to commit suicide and desperately seeks anyone to assist him. He has already dug out the grave in the mountains, but the assistant will have to bury him after the suicide. He finds it difficult to find someone to do the task.

The 118-minute ‘The Wind Will Carry Us’ depicts a disrespectful city engineer who comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. Meanwhile, he tries to fit in with the local community and it changes his own attitudes.

The 103-minute ‘Through the Olive Trees’ explores the relationship between a movie director and the actors. The local actors play a couple who got married right after an earthquake. In the meantime, the actor is actually trying to persuade the actress to marry him.

‘Take Me Home’ will be screened on January 15 and 17. ‘The Wind Will Carry Us’ will be on screen on January 20. ‘Through the Olive Trees’ will be displayed on January 24 and ‘Taste of Cherry’ will be presented on January 29.

The event will also host ‘76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami’ by Seifollah Samadian, which is a documentary to admire the influential Iranian filmmaker by one of his closest collaborators.

Kiarostami is 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.

Sofia MENAR Film Festival makes Bulgarian audiences familiar with the culture and traditions of the Islamic world, the website of the festival wrote.

The program of Sofia MENAR Film Festival presents the best of Middle East and North Africa cinema productions, including feature films, documentaries and short projects.

The event is slated for January 12 – 29, 2017.

MG/AI