FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Abbas Kiarostami - The Taste Of Cherry 

Who remembers the drama in Cannes 1997? Abbas Kiarostami was allowed to leave Iran at the last second to get to the premiere of The Taste Of Cherry. There were standing ovations for Kiarostami before the film. In the end he won the Golden Palm. Today at the video counter of the film art bar Fitzcarraldo I discussed the film with two customers. Both thought The Taste Of Cherry was a great masterpiece. I felt as if I had seen a half-finished film. A parable about life and death, which could be performed wonderfully, so that it sounds like a big movie after all... The story: A man in a Range Rover turns through a landscape near Tehran that looks like a huge construction site. The man's name is Mr. Badhi (Homayon Ershadi). He wants to commit suicide and is looking for someone to kill him. The first one he asks, however, runs away. Suicide is forbidden by the Koran and so the undertaking doesn't seem that easy. But finally he meets an old man who needs money and agrees. Nevertheless, the old man argues why suicide is not a solution: Could he, Badhi, live without the taste of cherries? Kiarostami tells this in long monotonous shots. You almost never see two figures in one shot. The Range Rover drives through the devastated landscape for quite a long time, then Bahi smokes again in an equally long sequence. The two customers at the video counter praised Kiarostami, who films so slowly and intensively. At a time when our attention span is getting shorter and shorter (that's how I learn), The Taste Of Cherry would be a healing antidote. Due to the slowness of the film one could get fully involved in the existential dilemma of the man. I don't have a problem with slow movies at all. I love the Japanese classics, yes I am addicted to them! Kiarostami's style, however, seems to me to be affected. His subject doesn't demand this monotony at all! And Badhi? Can we really concentrate better on his character, his dilemma? But wouldn't it be helpful to know him a little better? Do we even know anything about him? Kiarostami makes no attempt to bring this man closer to us. He only lets him look into the distance pregnant with meaning. And is it necessary that we sometimes see Kiarostami's camera team in the picture? Is that supposed to make us aware that everything is just a film? However, I have some bad news: The Taste Of Cherry is so lifeless that I can never really immerse myself in the movie. Basically, I agree with the two customers: It's good when movies aren't just an action storm! It's good when a Persian director secretly shoots and risks a lot! Yes, we all support artistic freedom in the Islamic Republic! Yes, there are great films from Iran! But is The Taste Of Cherry an experience I wouldn't want to miss? No.