Acclaimed Iranian Film Director Abbas Kiarostami Dies at 76

Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami. (Photo: AP)

Abbas Kiarostami, the writer-director who showed that Iranian cinema was one of the most original and emotionally engaging in the world, died in Paris on Monday from complications related to cancer, according to Iranian state media. He was 76.

Part of a new wave of Iranian film noir that started in the 1960s, Kiarostami won the Palmes d’Or at Cannes in 1997 for Taste of Cherry.

Kiarostami is particularly known for his local Iranian themes and realist plots focusing on the lives of ordinary people. He was also one of the few film makers to stay and prosper in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

What is peculiar about his art is that he’s both a rootedly Iranian artist in terms of his landscape, his urban sensibilities, his cinematography. But he’s also managed to raise those Iranian aspects to moments of universality.

Hamid Dabashi, Professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University

American director Martin Scorsese said of his work:

Kiarostami represents the highest level of artistry in the cinema.

Kiarostami was honored with Palme d’Or nominations, an Indie Spirit nomination, Locarno’s Leopard of Honor and a Grand Special Jury Prize from the Venice Film Festival for his 1999 film The Wind Will Carry Us.

He also received overwhelming responsed after directing French film Certified Copy (2010).

Born in Tehran in 1940, Kiarostami studied at the School of Fine Arts at Tehran University. His first foray into video was making commercials for Iranian TV.

Kiarostami was hospitalized with intestinal bleeding in March 2016, after which he reportedly fell into a coma. In April, reports suggested that he was suffering from gastrointestinal cancer.

In June Kiarostami traveled from to Paris from Iran to receive treatment where he breathed his last.