Sao Paulo retrospective revisits five decades of Abbas Kiarostami’s cinema
Brazil’s IMS Paulista cinema in Sao Paulo is showcasing five decades of Abbas Kiarostami’s filmmaking, bringing a broad selection of the late Iranian director’s work to Brazilian audiences from July 17 through September 27, IRNA reported Wednesday, citing the Kanoon Public Relations and International Affairs Department.
The retrospective traces Kiarostami’s artistic evolution and distinctive cinematic language through films spanning different stages of his career. It offers Brazilian audiences a window into the poetic world of a filmmaker whose work explored childhood, nature, everyday life and the human experience through an understated visual vocabulary.
The program has already featured ‘Colors’ and ‘The Experience,’ followed by ‘How to Make Use of Leisure Time: Painting (1977),’ ‘The Traveler,’ ‘The Bread and Alley’ and ‘Homework’. Later screenings include ‘The Chorus,’ ‘The Wind Will Carry Us,’ ‘Tribute to the Teachers’ and ‘First Graders’.
September screenings will bring some of Kiarostami’s best-known works back to the screen, including ‘Where Is the Friend’s House?’ on September 2, ‘Life, and Nothing More...’ on September 9 and 20, and ‘Through the Olive Trees’ on September 16 and 27. The IMS program also includes a wider retrospective running into December, with restored prints and additional titles.
Kiarostami, who died in 2016, remains one of the defining figures of Iranian cinema. His minimalist storytelling and poetic treatment of ordinary life helped carry Iranian filmmaking to international audiences while preserving a distinctly Iranian cultural perspective.
The São Paulo program provides a sustained platform for audiences to revisit that legacy and engage with a body of work that continues to shape contemporary cinema.