Abbas Kiarostami goes online on Walker Art Center

The Minneapolis-base Walker Art Center in the US has released some of Abbas Kiarostami’s master classes and never heard before discussions online.

Over the coronavirus pandemic, the US art center released some valuable archived interviews, talks and master classes with a number of famous names in the world of filmmaking.

The available files include those of the late Iranian maestro of cinema, Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Warner Herzog and others.

The program devised by the art center has been titled 30 years with Walker Dialogues and Retrospective.

The one dedicated to the late Abbas Kiarostami entails some lengthy articles on his masterpieces such as ‘Close-up’ and ‘Where is My Friend’s House?’.

In the related interview file, the late director goes over details of his filmmaking style.

For instance, when he is asked about his development of characters, Kiarostami opens up and says he believes the key factor in casting is the most fitted actor for the role.

He says the main cast member of ‘Where in My Friend’s House?’ had no idea about the film’s scenario and whatever we see in the movie is a real person living his real life.

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

He has won many awards, including the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival in 1997 for his film ‘Taste of Cherry’.

The late writer-director has been widely hailed as a pioneer of the Iranian New Wave.

His last film ‘Like Someone in Love’ (2012), a romantic drama set in Japan, was also nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes.

According to the official website of the Walker Art Center the gallery focuses “on visual, performing, and media arts of our time”.

AA/MG