There are many mixtures between documentary and fiction – [based upon] TRUE STORIES comprises various examples – but in this latest film by the Iranian grandmaster Abbas Kiarostami, the mixture is redefined and taken to even dizzier heights. In all looks very simple. A woman drives her car along the streets of Teheran. In the passenger seat beside her, several women ride at different times and, on occasions, her little son. The woman talks with her passengers about life, divorce, sex, education and wearing a headscarf. These are all difficult subjects in Iran, you could say, but the woman does not seem to bat an eyelid. The film is very simply shot on digital video. Two tiny cameras are stuck to the dashboard. One pointing at the driver and one at the passenger. Shot and cross shot. Film can be that simple. And that effective.The conversations filmed all look natural and improvised and therefore documentary. However the dramatic buildup of the conversations and the rich approach to the scenes suggests a writing or at least guiding hand. In ten simple scenes (counting down from 10 to 1) Kiarostami shows just how eloquent simplicity can be. Simplicity graces the master.
Film details
- France, Iran
- Year
- 2002
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2003
- Length
- 94"
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
You may also like this
-
Gwenyambira Simon Mashoko
For anyone for whom Rotterdam is too fast, too cold and too hectic, and who yearns for lethargy, African music and warm beer. A film that goes on and
-
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
Veteran experimental film maker looks round his wounded neighbourhood after 9/11 with the stunned sincerity of an amateur.
-
Frammenti Elettrici Nº 3: Corpi
Document of an obsession. 8mm material from the 1950s from a collection of female bodies filmed in secret.