IndieWire names Kiarostami’s film among best of century

Late-great Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s ‘Certified Copy’ has been named among the best films of the 21st century.

The American IndieWire website has published a lineup of ten best French films of the current century.

‘Certified Copy’ is about a discussion on the essence of authenticity in art and what, exactly, constitutes a reproduction.

“Can a fiction be truth? That’s the heady question behind the great Abbas Kiarostami’s “Certified Copy,” in which an antiques dealer (Juliette Binoche) and a writer (William Shimell) debate the essence of authenticity in art and what, exactly, constitutes a reproduction (perhaps everything). The film has its own metamorphosis of sorts too as the nature of even their relationship becomes amorphous and obscured when a farce about the two being married ends up becoming very real. It was an audacious and provocative film to kick off a decade of cinema and while the answers remain elusive, the experience and ideas are those that nine-plus years on have continued to provoke,” the media wrote about the movie.

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

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

The globally renowned Iranian director died at the age of 76 in 2016. After his demise, a good number of reputable film events paid tribute to the mega-director. 

FM/MG