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Abbas Kiarostami, generally regarded as one of the world's outstanding living film directors, was denied a visa to participate in the New York International FIlm Festival. The Paris embassy, through which he applied, citing new regulations after 9/11, stated that they could not complete background checks on the famous filmmaker in less than 90 days. Although expedited processing is frequently extended to visiting artisits and dignitaries coming into the US for cultural events, the Bush administration evidently felt that Kiarostami represented an especially dangerous terrorist risk...Much like John Lennon in the late 60's early 70's.What a relief!!! To think I was actually going to run over to Ohio State to see this man's film presentations! God knows what he might have said to Americans about his films! Maybe he would have tried to subvert impressionable students into watching more (gasp!) Iranian cinema!
The horror.
Follow Ups:
i saw some iranina films from the public library a few years back. they were some very good films. i believe they were shorts. i don't know the author.one was about an impending death of a person from a mob boss type of guy. the crime boss got the guy who apparently did something wrong, and he was pretty sure but not positive that he was going to be killed, and i think it was about the situation and what the guy was going through kind of knowing he had no chance to live. the film had started out with the merciless slaughter of a pig by cutting it's throat, a symbol of what is to come.
another one was about a couple who lived inside a bus like it was a trailer, and they kept having deformed kids and they decided to go to public places to leave their latest infant in the path of a passer-by who they would hope would have some money and interest to take the baby home.
both very interesting and disturbing films. i don't know who the director was, but i know good cinema is coming out of iran.
Hi,
there is an author by the name of Farley Mowatt. He is a gentle Canadian biologist, and an excellent writer. Mostly, he writes about his experiences, which for most writers results in mediocre novels. Farly had an amazing life,and writes about it with charm. Never Cry Wolf was made into a movie; but the book is 5 times better. I read that book twice in one day, it's hysterical.
Farley has a fascination with the North. So it was not surprising he should go to Siberia. Unfortunately, he went at the height of the Cold War, and recounted the warm hospitality his hosts accorded him in a book. That book got him banned from the United States; and I don't that his status has ever changed.Saying anything nice about Russians in the 50's; well...quelle horror. To think they might have some nice people there, shocking one would say such a thing. I believe he was denied entry into the US during the first Bush administration,this after the freaking Berlin Wall fell. So when you tell me a Bush did something like that, what can I say, the apple did not fall far from the tree.
dfhdfhdh
Thanks for chiming in - I simply could not remember this writer's name when I posted. Never Cry Wolf was a great book - I even saw the film. But the book *was* much better.The irony is that Mowatt is mild mannered and pretty much apolitical, while Kiarostami gets heat from Iranian officials for being too liberal and Westernized.
And yes, last time I knew, Mowatt is still banned. (There was an article somewhere about this a year or so ago. Bureacracy at its most absurd.)
Kiarostami himself is quoted in Daily Variety as responding thusly: "I certainly do not deserve an entry visa any more than the aging mother hoping to visit her children in the US, perhaps for the last time in her life...For my part, I feel this decision is somehow what I deserve." (NOT!)
Alas, Bush fils gets plenty of encouragement from that defender of liberty, John Ashcroft. What a relief. We're safe from nature writers and film directors for the near future anyway.
What films of Abbas Kiarostami do you recommend? I've only seen "The Wind Will Carry Us" and thought it was tedious. The director may have intended it to be so, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.
The first film of of Kiarostami's I saw was The White Balloon - terrible trailer, good film. The other I saw is Taste of Cherries, the film that won the Golden Palm at Cannes. That was an interesting film, with an unusual and humane take on, er, suicide. (It wasn't boring or depressing, honest.) Although Taste of Cherries has a somewhat deliberate pacing - you can't be in a hurry -it's ultimately an endearing character study - the ending will reward you. (I confess, having read the synposis of WWCU, I haven't been anxious to get a hold of the DVD.+ His new film, Ten, sounds more interesting.
Kiarostami may still not be your cuppa. But I'd start with WHite Balloon and maybe give him another shot.
I've seen "The White Balloon" and enjoyed that one much more than "WWCU", but Kiarostami just wrote that one, didn't direct it. I'll look for "Taste of Cherries". Thanks.
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