tehrantimes.com; Culture
July 3, 2019

TEHRAN – The Abbas Kiarostami Foundation announced on Wednesday that it has completed the restoration of a large lineup of his films for screening worldwide.

The lineup includes all the short films he made for the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults and his other features and documentaries, Kiarostami’s son, Ahmad, who is also the director of the foundation, said in a press release.

The restoration took two years to accomplish at MK2, an independent film company in France, Janus Films, an American film distribution company, and the Criterion Collection, an American home video distribution company, he added.

Janus Films will organize an Abbas Kiarostami retrospective at the IFC Center in New York in August, he said, and noted that his rare shorts and documentaries restored by the Criterion Collection and Mk2 will be screened.

“The Koker Trilogy”, which is composed of the filmmaker’s acclaimed feature films “Where Is the Friend’s Home?”, “Life and Nothing More” and “Under the Olive Trees” will also be screened at the IFC.


Photo: Abbas Kiarostami in an undated photo.

The retrospective will also showcase his features “The Experience”, “The Traveler”, “A Wedding Suit”, “Fellow Citizen”, “First Graders”, “Homework”, “Close-up”, “Taste of Cherry”.

In addition, the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, in collaboration with the foundation and MK2, will be holding a retrospective of the filmmaker in April 2020. His films will be reviewed during the exhibition, which also will showcase his paintings, books and photos.

The Criterion Collection has recently released Kiarostami’s final movie “24 Frames” in Blu-ray format. “The Koker Trilogy” is scheduled to be released by the company next month.

Kiarostami died on July 5, 2016 at the age of 76. His family and fans are scheduled to come together in Tork Mazraeh Cemetery in Lavasan, where he is buried, to commemorate the third anniversary of his death.

RM/MMS/YAW