Ten sequences in the emotional lives of six women and the challenges that they face at one particular moment in those lives, that could just as easily be ten sequences in the emotional life of the one same woman...
Celebrated Iranian writer-director Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry, Close-up) once again casts his masterful cinematic gaze upon the modern sociopolitical landscape of his homeland, this time as seen through the eyes of one woman as she drives through the streets of Tehran over a period of several days.
Her journey is comprised of ten conversations with various female passengers, including her sister, a hitchhiking prostitute and a jilted bride, as well as her imperious young son.
As Kiarostami’s ‘dashboard cam’ eavesdrops on these lively, heart-wrenching road trips, a complex portrait of contemporary Iran comes sharply into focus.
Calling it a ‘work of inspired simplicity,’ A.O. Scott in The New York Times wrote that Kiarostami, “in addition to being perhaps the most internationally admired Iranian filmmaker of the past decade, is also among the world masters of automotive cinema…
He understands the automobile as a place of reflection, observation and, above all, talk.” -- Zeitgeist Films
Extracts of Dialogues
-Life is so vast, why depend on just one person?
-Why not? Why not be different?
-It's not love. It's an illusion.
-If it's an illusion, what is love, then?
-First, you must love yourself. You despise yourself so much, you hurt yourself.
Has he gone? Too bad. There's more than one man in the world. And you're still crying? Go on. Leave him too.
-I can't!
-You're wrong to cling to him. It's an illusion. That's all!
Cannes (In Competition), New York, Toronto (Masters)
Read about this film
Title: Ten (2002)
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Date of birth: 22 June 1940, Teheran, Iran
Date of death: 4 July 2016, Paris, France
Writing credits:
Abbas Kiarostami
Country: France | Iran
Language: Farsi
Color: Color
Runtime: 94 min.