Where is the Friend's House?

press release: Iran | 1987 | DCP | 83 min. | Persian with English subtitles

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

Cast: Babek Ahmed Poor, Ahmed Ahmed Poor, Khodabakhsh Defaei

Kiarostami’s sweet and simple throwback to Italian neorealism tells the story of Ahmed, an eight-year old boy who tries to keep his best friend from being expelled from school by returning the notebook that he took by mistake. In trying to locate his friend’s village, Ahmed’s odyssey presents him with all kinds of obstacles, and help from the least expected places. Charming for audiences of all ages, this is the best place to begin appreciating one of contemporary cinema’s most important artists. Preceded by Kiarostami’s short film Breaktime (1972, 15 min.).

Abbas Kiarostami: The Koker Trilogy and More: This fall, the Cinematheque presents new restorations of the three films that firmly cemented the reputation of Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016) as one of the world’s leading cinema artists. Eventually known as “The Koker Trilogy,” these films collectively tell the story of the mountainous Koker region in Northern Iran and its resilient, hard-working and life-affirming residents, told with universality, simplicity and cleverness that has made them favorites of audiences in all parts of the world. Using bare-boned plots that recall Italian neorealism, Kiarostami manages to touch us without using complicated or forced contrivances that are de rigeur in contemporary popular cinema. In addition, you’ll also have a chance to catch-up with Kiarostami’s moving feature-length documentary, Homework (1989) along with several of his brilliant short films. Kiarostami’s work is a testament to the notion that great art knows no national boundaries.