An unequalled look in the world of the Iranian filmmaker
Pat Collins’ and Fergus Daly’s documentary is a unique film essay on the world-renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, the first to celebrate him as the complete artist that he is: poet, painter, photographer, installation artist, filmmaker. Taking an analytical approach, the film is framed around two interviews with Kiarostami, one on the Aran Islands where he went to take photographs in July 2001 and the other at the Cannes Film Festival 2002.
Intercut with these are interpretations of his work by those at the forefront of film criticism in the world today: Alain Bergala, Godfrey Cheshire, Michel Ciment, Adrian Martin and Jonathan Rosenbaum and colleagues such as Marin Karmitz, Jamsheed Akrami an Mohammad Attebai. Abbas Kiarostami: the Art of Living traces an artist’s zig-zag journey, his progressive distillation of reality as, step by step, the lyrical narratives of his earlier films have evolved into a multi-faceted project of remarkable intensity.