Kiarostami, Abbas

Kiarostami, Abbas

(born June 22, 1940, Tehran, Iran) Iranian director. Kiarostami was hired in 1969 by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults to establish its film division. The institute produced his first film as a director, the lyrical short The Bread and Alley (1970), which featured elements that define his work— improvised performances, documentary textures, and real-life rhythms. His first feature, Mosafer (1974), is a portrait of a troubled adolescent. Where Is the Friend's Home? (1987) gained him international acclaim, and he followed with several masterful films, including Close-up (1990), Through the Olive Trees (1994), The Taste of Cherry (1997), and The Wind Will Carry Us (1999). In the 1980s Kiarostami created documentaries examining the lives of Iranian schoolchildren, and his film ABC Africa (2001) examined the blight of orphans in AIDS-ravaged Africa.