21º Mostra Internacional de Cinema International Perspective
TASTE OF CHERRY

Iran   

Taste of CherryWinner of the Gold Palm at the 50th Cannes Festival, Taste of Cherry follows along with Mr Badii's trajectory. He is a man in his fifties, and he is driving about in his car over points in the city where the unemployed are available for odd, occasional jobs.

Mr Badii tries, in the midst of all these people, to find someone willing to get into his car and earn himself some quick, easy money in exchange for a small job. A small job that is difficult to explain and that no one seems willing to accept.

Mr Badii dialogs with a series of characters who are more or less marginalized by society and who receive his suggestion with varied reactions.

There are those who will get into the car and listen to Mr Badii to the end. Difficult it is to find anyone who will accept his generous offer.

What Mr Badii wants is to find someone willing to cater to his last wish, at dawn next day: to call him by the name twice, at the foot of a grave already dug. Should he answer, to rescue him; should he not answer, to cover him with earth.
The taste of a cherry is a souvenir suggested by the sole character who is open to the possibility of collaborating with Mr Badii. His stirring story also uses the subject of suicide, however, to inspire love for life.
 

     Director

DIRECTOR: Abbas Kiarostami
SCREENPLAY: Abbas Kiarostami
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Homayun Payvar
EDITION: Abbas Kiarostami
MUSIC: Vivaldi
CAST: Homayun Ershadi, Abdolhossein Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid, Bakhtari, Sefar-Ali Moradi, Mir-Hossein Noori
PRODUCER: Abbas Kiarostami
FESTIVALS: Cannes
PRODUCTION: Abbas Kiarostami
WORLD SALES: Ciby 2000
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ORIGINAL TITLE:

Ta'm-e-Ghilass
Col., 95 min., 1996

Abbas Kiarostami

Born in Teheran in 1940, Abbas Kiarostami graduated in Fine Arts and worked with publicity until 1968. Two years later he founded the Department of Cinema in the Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young People. His first short films are from this center, and in addition, he published his illustrations in editions of children's books. As from then, he developed an aptitude that has charmed international audiences by including child acting in his films, with teenagers, and even adults, common people with no knowledge of the cinema.

The São Paulo International Film Festival introduced Kiarostami's vigorous work through two retrospectives in which were included his short films The Bread and the Aley, The Break Time, The Solution Number One and The Chorus; and the features Where is the Friend's Home?, Close-Up, Through the Olive Trees and Life and Nothing (or And the Life Goes On...), distributed under the seal of the Film Festival - the seventh feature in his acknowledged international career - recognition now crowned with the Golden Palm at the 50th Cannes Festival for his latest achievement, Taste of Cherry.