TEHRAN – The Sydney Film Festival will hold a retrospective of renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

Ten films from the various periods of his career have been selected to be reviewed at Palace Central 1 during the festival, which will be organized in the Australian city from August 18 to 29, the organizers have announced.

“Taste of Cherry” is one of the films, which will be screened in the retrospective.

The first Iranian film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes is one of great humanity and complexity, which boasts one of cinema’s most daring and memorable endings.

Mr. Badiei is driving around construction sites on the dusty outskirts of Tehran. He’s looking for someone to dispose of his body after he takes his own life, and attempts to enlist the help of a young soldier, a seminarian and a taxidermist.

“The Wind Will Carry Us”, the winner of the grand jury prize at Venice Film Festival, is another highlight of the program.

It is a gently comic fable on the unpredictability of life. A key element across Kiarostami’s films is the reoccurrence of a hero with an obsessive quest who fails. In his book on Kiarostami, Jonathan Rosenbaum argues that, while this narrative displacement is troubling for some viewers, these “digressions are moments drenched in personality, humor, and atmosphere.”

“Where Is the Friend’s House?”, winner of the Bronze Leopard at the 1989 Locarno Film Festival, will be screened.

This poetic tale about a young boy who must return a classmate’s schoolbook brought Kiarostami to international fame.

The first film in Kiarostami’s beloved Koker trilogy opens in a rural school in northern Iran. Mohammadreza has completed his homework in the wrong book and if he does it again will be expelled. When Ahmad accidentally takes Mohammad’s book home, he’s mortified and journeys into the night to find his best friend and return the book. 

It is about responsibility and duty, which was inspired by an idea from Kiarostami’s son Bahman and a story from a teacher. 

The lineup also includes “And Life Goes On”, “Bread and Alley”, “Close-Up”, “The Traveler”, “Through the Olive Trees”, “Orderly or Disorderly” and “Ten”.

Numerous international film centers and festivals have organized retrospectives of Kiarostami after his death on July 4, 2016.

Garage Screen, a major film center in Moscow that focuses on new cinema and the history of films in dialogue with contemporary art and culture, is holding a retrospective of Kiarostami.

In addition, the Asian Film Archive, a non-governmental center in Singapore that preserves the film heritage of Asian cinema, is currently holding a retrospective of the filmmaker.

Thirty-four feature and short films are being showcased during the retrospective, which opened on July 10 and will run until August 28 at the Oldham Theatre, National Archives of Singapore Building.

Photo: “The Wind Will Carry Us” by Abbas Kiarostami.

MMS/YAW