Criterion Press Release: Taste of Cherry (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

The first Iranian film to win the Palme d’Or, this austere, emotionally complex drama by the great Abbas Kiarostami follows the middle-aged Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) as he drives around the hilly outskirts of Tehran looking for someone who will agree to dispose of his body after he commits suicide, a taboo under Islam. Extended conversations with three passengers (a soldier, a seminarian, and a taxidermist) elicit different views of mortality and individual choice. Operating at once as a closely observed, realistic story and a fable populated by archetypal figures, Taste of Cherry challenges the viewer to consider what often goes unexamined in everyday life.

FILM INFO

• Abbas Kiarostami
• Iran
• 1997
• 99 minutes
• Color
• 1.66:1
• Persian
• Spine #45

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Project, Abbas Kiarostami’s 39-minute 1997 sketch film for Taste of Cherry, made with the director’s son Bahman Kiarostami
• New interview with Iranian film scholar Hamid Naficy
• Rare 1997 interview with Abbas Kiarostami, conducted by Iranian film scholar Jamsheed Akrami
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic A. S. Hamrah

New cover by Michael Boland

July 21, 2020

 

[Ronald Epstein]

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