Iran's Globetrotting Animation 'Malakout' Adds Two UK
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July 7, 2021 Samuel Beckett (Irish playwright) Poets are the sense, philosophers the intelligence of humanity. 8Arts & Culture License Holder: Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) Abbas Kiarostami: Managing Director: Touraj Shiralilou Editor-in-Chief: Kambakhsh Khalaji Editorial Dept. Tel: +98 21 88755761-2 The master of Iranian New Wave Editorial Dept. Fax: +98 21 88761869 Subscription Dept. Tel: +98 21 88748800 ICPI Publisher: +98 21 88548892, 5 Advertising Dept. Tel & Email: +98 21 88500617 - [email protected] By Swapnil Dhruv Bose* Website: www.irandaily.ir newspaper.irandaily.ir Considered by many to be one of the finest filmmakers the world Email: [email protected] Iran Cultural & Press Institute has ever seen, Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami‘s works have Printing House: inspired multiple generations of young students and aspiring direc- Address: Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #208 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran-Iran tors. Through his poetic masterpieces, Kiarostami conducted strik- Iran Daily has no responsibility whatsoever for the advertisements and promotional material printed in the newspaper. ing existential examinations of life that transcended the limitations of the cinematic medium. On the fifth anniversary of his tragic de- mise, we revisit the life and career of Abbas Kiarostami as a tribute to the indelible mark he left on history. Born in Tehran in 1940, Kiarostami showed artistic inclinations Iran’s globetrotting animation ‘Malakout’ from a relatively early age. He was a talented painter and won a painting competition when he was only 18, eventually studying graphic design at The University of Tehran, School of Fine Arts. Kiarostami started his career by working in the world of advertise- adds two UK awards to its assets ment, designing posters and shooting innumerable commercials. In 1969, as the Iranian New Wave was gathering momentum, he worked with Ebrahim Forouzesh in order to establish a film divi- Arts & Culture Desk fest International in St. George, Utah, sion at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children the US, the special awards of the 6th and Young Adults, reported faroutmagazine.co.uk. ranian animation ‘Malakout,’ Wolves Independent International With the help of the institute, Kiarostami successfully produced directed by Farnoosh Abedi, re- Film Festival (WIIFF) in Lithuania as his first cinematic work – a 10-minute short called, ‘The Bread and I ceived two awards at the Ignite well as the 18th biennial Hiroshima Alley,’ released in 1970. A wonderful take on child psychology Film Festival in Wiltshire, the UK. International Animation Festival in (something that would become a recurring subject in his later films) It won the Best Animated Film and Japan. with elements of neorealism, the short displayed artistic deviations Best Sound Design awards at the UK Also, two of the recent best short from the norms of the time. festival and won 60 awards so far, film awards given to the animation Soon after, he IRNA wrote. were from the 2020 DaVinci Interna- made the acclaimed Sound recording and voice acting tional Film Festival (DIFF) in the US early feature, ‘The of the film is done by Soroush Abedi and the 14th Cryptshow Festival in Traveler,’ in 1974, who has received 10 awards for this Spain. which would be film. The animation is also the recipient counted among his The animation is about a piano of an honorary diploma at the Silk finest works even player who tries to bring his wife back Road International Film Festival in after the end of his to life but the deal awakens the devil Ireland, the Best Animation Award career. The film inside him. at the Black Country Horror Shorts portrayed a mel- ‘Malakout’ has received several Film Festival 2020 in the UK, and two ancholic coming- international awards including the awards at the Florida Animation Festi- of-age story about etemadonline.com best animated award at 2020 Horror- val of the US. a young boy who IRNA copes with do- mestic oppression by escaping into the fantasy of football. Around that time, Kiar- ‘Iran and Japan Cinema’ ostami continued to produce short films like ‘So Can I’ and ‘Co- Iran to join lours’ before coming up with the 1977 masterpiece, ‘The Report,’ which raised pertinent questions about professional corruption and Museum With No Frontiers available in Iranian bookstores personal problems by following the frenetic life of a tax collector. These early artistic impressions still serve as undeniable evidence Arts & Culture Desk that the promising young filmmaker would reach unprecedented With the cooperation of the Iranian heights. Iran will officially join the project Museum With No Frontiers (MWNF) Embassy in Japan, the book was pub- The 1980s and ’90s were undoubtedly the most notable pe- to introduce Iranian and Islamic arts and architecture, said the director of lished by Al-Hoda Institute of Culture riod in Kiarostami’s journey as a director. ‘The Koker Trilogy,’ the Iranian and Islamic Studies Research Group at the National Library and Art and International Publications, consisting of ‘Where Is the Friend’s Home?’ (1987), ‘Life, and and Archives of Iran. which is affiliated with the Islamic Cul- Nothing More…’ (1992) and ‘Through the Olive Trees’ (1994), Ali-Mohammad Tarafdari added that joining the project will open new win- ture and Relations Organization, IRNA remains a work that is rife with staggering artistic achievements. dows to Iranology. reported. Kiarostami’s portrayal of childhood innocence and the magical The MWNF is an inter- This book is 335 pages, in four chapters, transformation of the banal into the profound in ‘Where Is the national non-profit project and includes the relationship between the Friend’s Home?’ is so special that it is impossible for it to age founded on the initiative two great countries of Iran and Japan in the poorly as long as we remember what it means to be friends with of Eva Schubert in 1995 in fields of cinema, film screening, participa- someone. In the later installments to the trilogy, after a devastat- the context of the Barce- tion in festivals, and making joint films. ing earthquake in 1990, Kiarostami blurs the distinctions between lona Process Euro-Medi- The book is a valuable collection about fiction and reality in order to carry out metaphysical assessments terranean Partnership re- the cinema industry of both countries and of the fundamental truths regarding the process of filmmaking. launched as the Union for a comprehensive history of cinematic and When we consider Kiarostami’s filmography as a whole, the the Mediterranean. international interactions between the two ’90s were remarkably important because of three truly brilliant museumwnf.org The project organizes countries. pieces of cinema that he produced during that period (apart from virtual tours featuring Iran’s Cultural Attaché in Japan Hossein the additions to ‘The Koker Trilogy’). Starting with ‘Close-Up’ historical monuments left from the past centuries ranging from Islamic Era to Divsalar stated that previously, a book titled, in 1990, the Iranian master gained international recognition as contemporary period in order to introduce the emergence of Islamic arts and ‘Japanese Studies in Iran,’ written by Mo- well as praise from other pioneers like Jean-Luc Godard, Martin architecture, Tarafdari explained. ISNA hammad Naqizadeh, a university professor Scorsese and Werner Herzog among others. In it, Kiarostami at- A total of 38 countries from Europe, Africa and the Middle East have partici- and prominent Japanese scholar, along with tacked the barriers that filter truth from reality with more convic- pated in the project, and several public and private organizations from Algeria, Arts & Culture Desk Zakeri, was published in collaboration with tion than ever while framing the dangers of solipsistic cinephilia Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Poland, Italy, Jordan, Al-Hoda. in a humanistic framework. Another fascinating film from that Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey A book titled, ‘Iran and Japan Cinema,’ In the end, Divasalar expressed hope that time is ‘Taste of Cherry,’ which was famously panned by Roger and the United Kingdom have joined the program so far, he added. written by researcher and expert on Japa- ‘Iran and Japan Cinema’ could help us use Ebert even though it won the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes. “Within MWNF, artefacts in museums, monuments and archaeological sites nese studies, Qodratollah Zakeri, has been cinema as a tool to have better relations be- Time has proven Ebert wrong since Kiarostami’s simple story become ‘ambassadors’ of the civilisations they represent,” according to the of- released. tween the two countries. about a man searching for death still resonates with newer audi- ficial website of the museum. ences. ‘The Wind Will Carry Us’ (1999) wrapped up an extremely eventful decade for Kiarostami during which he managed to so- lidify his status as one of the greatest living filmmakers. A year Exhibition on 50 years of Iran’s metalworking opens later, he received the Akira Kurosawa Prize for a lifetime of achievements in the world of cinema. “Words cannot describe my feelings about his films,” Kuro- Arts & Culture Desk ing on metals), opened at the Research Cen- presence of the head of the research cen- sawa said once. “When Satyajit Ray passed on I was very de- ter of the Traditional Arts of the Ministry of ter, Seyyed Abdolmajid Sharifzadeh, pressed. But after seeing Kiarostami’s films I thank God for giv- An exhibition titled, ‘50 Years of Metalwork- Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism IRNA reported. ing us just the right person to take his place.” Kiarostami kept ing,’ featuring artworks by Iran’s veteran and on Tuesday. Due to the increase in the coronavirus strengthening his oeuvre with gems like ‘Ten,’ ‘Shirin’ and more, young artists of qalamzani (Persian engrav- The exhibition was inaugurated in infection in Iran, the exhibition is under- which fulfilled the purpose of reminding us that auteurs weren’t way for 15 days until July 21 on the social an extinct species in the 21st century.