Taste of Cherry

Taste of Cherry 1997

7.70

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

1997

Children of Heaven

Children of Heaven 1997

7.90

Zohre's shoes are gone; her older brother Ali lost them. They are poor, there are no shoes for Zohre until they come up with an idea: they will share one pair of shoes. School awaits.

1997

Life, and Nothing More…

Life, and Nothing More… 1992

7.63

After the earthquake of Guilan, a film director and his son travel to the devastated area to search for the actors from the movie the director made there a few years previously. In their search, they see how people who have lost everything in the earthquake still have hope and try to live life to the fullest.

1992

Where Is The Friend's House?

Where Is The Friend's House? 1987

7.90

An 8 year old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.

1987

Close-Up

Close-Up 1990

7.90

This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.

1990

The Runner

The Runner 1984

7.10

A young orphan named Amiro lives alone in an abandoned tanker in the Iranian port city of Abadan. He survives by shining shoes, selling water, and collecting deposit bottles. Although he sometimes finds himself at odds with both adults and competing older kids, he finds solace in dreams about departing cargo ships and airplanes—and by running.

1984

Homework

Homework 1989

7.30

Young male students at a local Iranian school are asked about their feelings on homework.

1989

The Traveler

The Traveler 1974

7.40

Hassan Darabi, a troublesome, amoral 10-year-old boy in a small Iranian town wishes to see the Iran national football team play an important match in Tehran. In order to achieve that, he scams his friends and neighbors.

1974

Bashu, the Little Stranger

Bashu, the Little Stranger 1991

7.60

During the Iran-Iraq War, Bashu, a young boy loses his house and all his family. Scared, he sneaks into a truck that is leaving the area. He gets off the truck in the Northern part of the country, where everything from landscape to language is different. He meets Naii, who is trying to raise her two young children on a farm, while her husband is away. Despite cultural differences, and the fact that they do not speak the same language, Bashu and Naii slowly form a strong bond.

1991

A Wedding Suit

A Wedding Suit 1976

7.20

A woman orders a suit from a tailor for her young son to wear to her sister's wedding. The tailor's apprentice, together with two other teenage boys who work in the same building, devise a plan to try on the suit at night to see what it feels like.

1976

Two Solutions for One Problem

Two Solutions for One Problem 1975

5.70

During breaktime, Dara and Nader have a fierce argument about a torn exercise book that the former has given back to the latter. There are two possible outcomes, which the film shows one after the other. One is that Dara wants to get his own back, and the two boys start a violent fight; the other is that they work together to mend the exercise book with a little glue.

1975

The Bread and Alley

The Bread and Alley 1970

6.60

Returning from an errand to buy bread, a boy finds a menacing dog blocking his way through the alley he must go down to get home. Frightened by the dog's barking, he asks various passers-by for help but no-one pays him any attention, and he must find a solution all by himself: he throws the dog a piece of bread and, while the animal is devouring it, he continues on his way home.

1970

The Experience

The Experience 1973

6.20

The hard daily life of a kid working in a photo shop while trying to get closer to the girl he likes.

1973

Orderly or Disorderly

Orderly or Disorderly 1995

5.50

A sense of order is the necessary basis of any good social organisation. To illustrate this axiom, Kiarostami presents a series of paired scenes in this educational short film in which the same action is first shown in an organised way and then in an anarchic one. The film crew, however, finds it difficult to organise disorder.

1995

First Case, Second Case

First Case, Second Case 1979

6.50

First Case, Second Case is a documentary about a teacher who sends a group of pupils out of the classroom when one of them does not own up to talking behind the master's back.

1979

So Can I

So Can I 1975

5.40

Two children watching animals move in an animated film try to imitate their gestures — until they see real birds fly and a real airplane take off.

1975

Recess

Recess 1972

6.10

A boy on his way home from school kicks a ball out of a street where some children are playing. He's chased and forced to take a new way home.

1972

The Chorus

The Chorus 1982

5.80

An old man with a hearing aid tires of listening to the noises of the town. But when he takes his aid out he can't hear his grandchildren coming to see him.

1982

The Key

The Key 2000

5.80

Calamity by four-year old might be another title for this tense, humorous drama. In the story, a four year old boy (Mohammed Aladpoush) is left at home with his baby brother while his mother goes out shopping. She has told him to give the baby his bottle while she is away. However, the boy has a different idea about what he should do, and consumes most of the bottle himself. The hungry baby's cries arouse the neighbors to try and get into the apartment, but it is locked, and the four-year old can't (or, more likely, won't) let them in. Despite a number of near-disasters, the enterprising young boy manages things just well enough (with the occasional help of shouted advice from frantic neighbors) so that serious calamities are avoided.

2000

First Graders

First Graders 1996

6.67

A documentary film about a boys school in Iran. The film shows numerous, funny and moving interviews of many different young pupils of this school summoned by their superintendent for questions of discipline. The man is not severe, but clever and fair. He teaches loyalty, fellowship and righteousness to these boys. Besides these interviews, we see scenes of this school’s quotidian life.

1996