Taste Of Cherry

Year: 1997

Grade: B+

Country: Iran

Director: Kiarostami

Review

this movie blew my mind. i’ve seen only one other kiarostami film (the wind will carry us) and thought that it was rather good. this film is very similar. it has a similar skeleton…the story rotates around one man who spends a lot of time in his car, they both are meditations on death, both prominently feature the iranian landscape, both have nebulous endings and both have similar pacing/visual styles. i suppose you could call this one style over substance, but there is a lot of substance in the film. i think one would be inclined to call it style over substance just because the style is so unique and integral to the film…not because of a lack of substance. i like the way kiarostami deals non judgmentally with the subject of death, or more precisely, suicide. i don’t want to say very much here, but it’s a recommendable film for people who don’t mind a slow film. it IS slow and may even put you to sleep, but it sticks with you and i have respect for that.