OLD FASIONED BEAUTY : "TASTE OF CHERRY"

I don’t know nearly as much about Persian cinema as I should. I privately think this goes for a large part of the rest of the world as well, but anyway. I need to educate myself before making plans of world education (hohoho). Thus, with the added aid of our school library – both massive and free to use! – I have started with the best known and the classics. You will remember that I have spoken of Abbas Kiarostami here before. Taste of Cherry is one of his better known works. I picked it out of the library on this reference alone, but… Yes, you guessed it. There was a god reason for it. The story in itself is quite simple – or at least it seems so. Mr. Badii, about whom we know very little, has had enough of life. He is evidently well read and well-spoken and seems to be able to live in comfort but these things don’t seem to be enough for him. He has decided once and for all to kill himself. But the thing is, he cannot do it alone. He needs an accomplice to finish the job, namely, someone to bury him in his chosen spot after he has done the deed. As you can imagine, no matter how much money is on offer in return, finding the accomplice is no easy task. Will Mr. Badii find the right person to help him? Or will one of the many random characters he meets on the way convince him that life is yet worth living?... What I love the most about Kiarostami’s films is that the beauty of it is hidden in the details. True, the film doesn’t look very “exciting” at the offset, especially when you factor in the filming conditions in Iran, the lack of special effects and the like. It is basically a guy driving around and around in a car, in a desolate – albeit beautifully so – landscape looking for someone to help kill him. Sad and thought-provoking yes, but I never actually thought I would be as excited about it as I later became. You see, this film is an old fashioned film. It doesn’t become all “familiar” with you in the first 15 minutes as it were, full of special effects, big explosions, beautiful babes /beaus and all that jazz. It takes time. Really lets you get to know it. Actually get into the details. Thus, when you get “into” Kiarostami’s films, it is generally not because you are swept away on adrenaline. It is because, thanks to the mastery of the director, you have really got to know the character. You are interested, involved in what happens to him. As the story develops you start taking sides, getting het up… But in the end, Kiarostami doesn’t hesitate to remind us, life is something completely ephemeral. Like a dream as it were… I didn’t expect to get so into this film gentle reader but it grew on me as I watched it. By the end of the 90-odd minutes, it had become yet another cherished favourite. I hope you take the plunge, watch and agree…