The Year of the Revolution (Iranian cinema)

       During 1977 and 1979 the era of modern Iran history prevailed. These were the years of the revolution that brought fundamental religious and political leaders. During that time millions of Iran citizens were under the Islamic republic; however, Iran’s revolution was questionable to Kiarostami. He had unorthodox way of expressing current issues.  By the 1980’s the Iranian government became a large threat to the United States’ national security. Late the same year,  Kiarostami released one of his greatest works “Where is the Friend’s House”.  Kiarostami used children as his primary depiction to study the Iranian revolution. One of the major problems with the Iranian government was that there was a duality and question of power between the main religious leader and the political leader which made the country unstable. Kiarostami used his films to portray the reality of his people which could also represent the rest of the world. “Close Up” is one of my favorite films directed by Abbas Kiarostami; this film tells the story of the real-life trial of a man who pretended to be film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, fooling a family into believing that they would star in his new film. The film features the people involved, acting as themselves. It is a film about human identity that helped to increase recognition of Kiarostami in the west.

Abbas Kiarostami

Kiarostami is one of the most influential Iranian filmmakers. During the period of war between   Iran and Iraq, his cinema introduced a civilized and artistic face. Despite the problem Iran had been enduring, Kiarostami never left the country while others did. Even though Kiarostami made several award winning films early in his career, it was after the Iranian Revolution that he earned a highly valued reputation on the stage of world cinema. He has a unique style but plain poetic and philosophical print. His filmmaking tears the curtain from conventional narrative and documentary filmmaking. Kiarostami defied the audience’s role. In his films he encourages the audience to give feedback.  In some of Kiarostami’s films there are parts that are missing or not given to the viewers. As a result, the viewers have to make up that reason like in the “Taste of Cherry”, “Life and Nothing More”.., and “The Wind will Carry Us”. In his mind, the untold or unexplained parts of his films are created to test his audience comprehension. During his film he doesn’t stay exclude from the screen. He put himself and his crew as part of his creation on the screen. “Close-Up” contains many clue elements of Kiarostami’s cinema. The main character is an innocent but corrupt man; behind the scenes and within the frame, Kiarostami interviewed the man in prison that pretended to be famous filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf. In “Homework” he also interviews the children and in “Case No. 1 and Case No2”. His way of creating films paved the way for the next generation of filmmakers.