A visual paean to a prodigy: Celebrating Abbas Kiarostami
"I have often noticed that we are not able to look at what we have in front of us, unless it's inside a frame"
- Abbas Kiarostami
(22 June, 1940 – 4 July, 2016)
Cinema is deemed as the seventh art - amalgamating architecture, sculpting, painting, music, poetry and dance. As with all other branches of art, filmmaking too has had its share of great artists.
In that art of intertwining incidents with imagination, few names have accolades of majestic aura associated with them as Abbas Kiarostami. Today (22 June) would have marked the 83rd birth anniversary of the Iranian maestro of visual storytelling.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Kiarostami had a penchant for blending realism and allegory, his films often serving as gateways to an introspective universe - where life at its essence shimmers beneath the surface of existence.
Being a photojournalist and documentary photographer, I am naturally drawn to captivating visuals, and Kiarostami's films had a profound impact on me. They immersed me in an experience that touched the deepest parts of my being. For me, he was not just a filmmaker; he embodied the essence of visual arts.
As I visited the shores of Cox's Bazar in spring last year, roaming around that land cradled by waves, I found myself witness to visages that felt as if scenes out of Kiarostami's films; namely Where is My Friend's Home? (1987) and The Taste of Cherry (1997).
In Where is My Friend's Home? Kiarostami delicately unfolded a gentle tribute to the innocence of a schoolchild - entwining a narrative that resonates deep within and reminds of the enduring strength of compassion and the profound impact of friendship. It stands as a radiant testament to the pure, fragile dreams held within every human heart.
A contemplative symphony of life's fleeting nature has been depicted in The Taste of Cherry. Through silence and breathtaking landscapes, he invited the audience to travel through the winding paths of introspection - compelling to face mortality, pondering the evanescent nature of beauty that weaves through the fabric of existence.
Through his works of cinema, Abbas Kiarostami conveys that life's true richness lies not in the destination, but in the significance of the journey itself.
A maverick of Iranian cinema, his films challenged perceptions and both ravelled in and revealed the fervent beauty of the human experience; films that will continue to resonate and captivate audiences long after the final frame fades to black. Kiarostami possessed the extraordinary gift of being able to capture the very essence of life through his cinemas. His films went beyond ordinary storytelling - becoming vessels that humbly invite to explore the hidden intricacies of quiddity.
Through his lens, the ordinary transformed into something extraordinary, quietly divulging secrets that only the perceptive eye could grasp.
