There will be six short films screened for Short Films #1, part of Retrospective: Abbas Kiarostami. 

Two Solutions for One Problem (1975)

2K RESTORATION
Original Title: دو راه حل برای یک مسئله / Do rah-e hal baraye yek massaleh
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Runtime: 5 min
Country: Iran
Language: Persian, with English subtitles
Rating: PG

ASIAN PREMIERE
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Full Synopsis

This simple moral tale seems to prefigure Where Is the Friend’s House?. Two young schoolboys, Dara and Nader, are friends until Dara returns Nader’s notebook torn and Nader retaliates in kind, setting off an escalating battle that leads to physical injury. In the second solution, Dara realizes his offense and repairs the notebook, preserving the peace and the friendship. The film is shot mostly in close-ups, with a narrator drolly chronicling the action.

Text by Janus Films.

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So Can I (1975)

2K RESTORATION
Original Title: منم می‌تونم / Manam mitounam
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Runtime: 4 min
Country: Iran
Language: Persian, with English subtitles
Rating: G

ASIAN PREMIERE

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Full Synopsis

The first of Kiarostami’s films made for, rather than just about, children was an experiment in combining live action and animation, done in collaboration with animator Nafiseh Riahi. As two schoolboys watch animated views of animals’ actions—kangaroos jumping, fish swimming, etc.—one boy (played by Riahi’s son Kamal) says, “I can, too,” and imitates the actions. The music is sprightly, the mood fun. The second boy is Kiarostami’s son Ahmad.

Text by Janus Films.

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The Colours (1976)

2K RESTORATION
Original Title: رنگ‌ها / Rang-ha
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Runtime: 16 min
Country: Iran
Language: Persian, with English subtitles
Rating: Exempted

ASIAN PREMIERE

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Full Synopsis

Ostensibly also a film for children, this picture-book essay about the range of hues that brighten our world has the air of a delightfully playful formalistic exercise. As a narrator runs though the colors one by one, Kiarostami shows us where each appears in nature and human life (which occasions some great views of pre-revolutionary consumer culture in Iran). Of course, a little boy is featured—in one memorable sequence, he fantasizes about being a race-car driver.

Text by Janus Films.

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Tribute to the Teachers (1977)

2K RESTORATION
Original Title: بزرگداشت معلم / Bozorgdasht-e moalem
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Runtime: 17 min
Country: Iran
Language: Persian, with English subtitles
Rating: PG

ASIAN PREMIERE

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Full Synopsis

An assignment from the Ministry of Education, this documentary from the last years of the Pahlavi dynasty includes interviews with officials who predictably praise teaching as a sacred, noble, and honorable profession. The teachers who are also interviewed are less starry-eyed; one speaks of ungrateful students and the job’s poor pay. The contrasting views express Kiarostami’s interest in education while registering some of his reservations about how it is practiced.

Text by Janus Films.
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Orderly or Disorderly (1981)

2K RESTORATION
Original Title: به ترتیب یا بدون ترتیب / Beh tartib ya bedun-e tartib
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Runtime: 17 min
Country: Iran
Language: Persian, with English subtitles
Rating: PG

ASIAN PREMIERE

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Full Synopsis

This film’s first shot shows students descending a staircase in calm, orderly fashion, then its second details the same action as a chaotic rush. Separated by slates and Kiarostami’s voice intoning, “Sound, camera,” subsequent sequences describe the same dichotomous behavior in a schoolyard, on a school bus, and in the haphazard traffic of Tehran. Kiarostami described this as “a truly educational film,” but it plays more like a quirky philosophic aside.

Text by Janus Films.

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Toothache (1980)

2K RESTORATION
Original Title: دندان‌درد / Dandan dard
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Runtime: 27 min
Country: Iran
Language: Persian, with English subtitles
Rating: Exempted

ASIAN PREMIERE

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Full Synopsis

Though much of this film is a straightforward lecture about dental hygiene delivered by a dentist facing the camera, it still manages to be persuasively Kiarostami-esque in its description of young Mohammad-Reza’s life at home and school before he falls prey to tooth woes. (Kiarostami found the boy having a tooth removed, then filmed the earlier parts of the story later.) That some audiences find the film hilarious testifies to the humor that can accompany great discomfort.

Text by Janus Films.

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For the full Retrospective: Abbas Kiarostami programme, please refer here.

If you have any trouble purchasing your tickets, please contact us at ticketing@asianfilmarchive.org 

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Important Notice:

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