Parallax View

The films of Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami have always explored the complex relationship of cinema to the world it reproduces and recreates in a frame. To quote a line from Certified Copy, “It’s our perception that gives [art] value.” The film, which is also Kiarostami’s first film produced and shot outside of Iran, plays with our [...]

Abbas Kiarostami’s “Koker Trilogy” (Where Is The Friend’s Home, Life and Nothing More and Through the Olive Trees) plays at Northwest Film Forum over three days, Tuesday, February 14 through Thursday, February 16. This review was originally published [with minor differences] in Seattle Weekly in 1999. There are moments while watching a film by Abbas [...]

[parts of this were originally published in the Seattle Weekly, February 24, 1999] In 1989 in Tehran, a movie mad unemployed printer named Ali Sabzian was arrested for impersonating the famous film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The family he had fooled was deep in rehearsals for his next “film” when they alerted authorities of their suspicions. [...]

UPDATE May 26: Jafar Panahi Freed! According to a report from the Associated Press, Iranian authorities have released Jafar Panahi. He’s been freed on $200,000 bail, but his troubles may not be over. According to the report, the indictment (which is still sealed; the “crimes” he’s been accused of have still not been made public) [...]