Taste of
Cherry, written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami
10 out of
10
In short,
this is a glorious magnum opus, about the Miracle of life, Optimism,
Positivity, or as some critics have been quoted on the poster: ‘a work of art,
exquisite, Kiarostami continues to astound, extraordinarily beautiful!’
Indeed, the
marvelous motion picture has been included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000
Movies ever Made list - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/22
- and it has won the most important cinematic prize in the world – in value
terms, not for the fame acquired – The Palme d’Or at The Cannes film Festival
in 1997, where the writer- director has been nominated for an incredible seven
awards in his outstanding career, including for a phenomenal Four (!) Palmes d’Or,
of which he has won two, another one for Through the Olive Trees –
what makes
Taste of Cherry so much more fabulous is the fact that the audience is overwhelmed
by a narrative that revolves around a single main character mostly, Mr. Badii
aka the remarkable, complex, emotional and yet so restrained Homayoun Ershadi,
who drives his Range Rover through the hills, in what looks like a rather
remote, rural area where some construction and extraction work is going on and
where he invites a few strangers in his vehicle, to help him with a delicate, outlandish,
serious issue.
To begin
with, one may think that this is a homosexual man who tries to find an
occasional partner and he is offering good money – actually, he insists with
his first two interlocutors that it does not matter what the final object of
the request is…’have you been working in construction? Then you know that it
does not matter if you lay the foundation for a school, a mosque or something
else and they do not tell you what the purpose is for the wall you work on’.
Indeed, in
the opening scenes, one passerby is threatening violence, if not to smash the
face in for the insistent driver, who offers money, insists on offering a ride,
so much so that the suspicion is that there might be something immoral,
objectionable, perhaps perverse to the demand and it would in fact appear to be
both more innocent and at the same time heavier, more consequential than the
suspected indelicate advance.
After he is
severely rejected by one man, Mr. Badii offers a ride to a soldier, whose name
we never learn – indeed, we never know what causes the severe, apparently irremediable
depression of the hero, in order to give depth and make the subject cover a broader
area, it is about all those who are at the edge, ready to say good bye for good
– and the young man insists he has to be back at the barracks before six, then
he admits he is short of money and becomes interesting when he has the prospect
of winning a large sum.
The hero
talks about the job, but when asked what it implies, he goes a long way to
avoid revealing details, insisting that this would be all the money the soldier
makes in six months and it only takes ten minutes and they need to insist on
the sum and forget the task, it is only minutes and therefore what is to
object, but when he finally has to explain that the young man is expected to
arrive at six next morning and shout Mr. Badii and help him out of the hole or,
if there is no answer, to shove earth in the hole, on top of him, the stranger
recoils and even jumps out of the car, at the next opportunity and never stops
running through the nearby green valley.
As the main
character drives through the winding, earth roads that send clouds of dust in the
air, he meets various people, some of them help lift the car when it is stuck
in a ditch, one asks him to move the car when he blocks access and others shout
and ask the careless driver if ‘he wants to die’ – we now know that this is the
plan, although it seems a bit odd that he is so concerned about getting those
shovels of earth on top of his would be cadaver, though the thoughts of those
who want to die are not necessarily among the most logical and sensical.
The hero
meets next a seminarian and starts his plea for help, without giving the
details, suggesting nonetheless that when man has had enough, he cannot wait
for God – probably called Allah here – to take him so he has to end his life himself,
but he does not convince the student of the holy texts – the latter insists
that Allah does not accept this, even quotes some of the texts, only to have
the driver somewhat upset and retort that if ‘he wanted someone to give him a
sermon, he would go to one who will have finished his studies’.
Which brings
us to Mr. Bagheri and the climax of the film, for albeit this is an uneducated
character, just like all, with the exception of the owner of a Range Rover –
probably not the latest model, but still an expensive model – the man who works
in a Natural museum, for which he had killed a number of birds to have them
stuffed, has a brilliant mind and the story that gives the name to the movie
and is the highlight by all means:
Mr. Bagheri
has been through a similar experience, many years before, after he had married,
he became so disconsolate, dejected that he decided to commit suicide, went to
a mulberry tree and tried a couple of times to tie a rope to the branches, in
vain, so he thought of climbing to fix the problem, only to find the mulberries
delicious, offering some to some passing children, that ask for them and then
eventually to his wife at home.
This Messenger
from God then speaks about the miracles of life, the Taste of Cherry, the sunrise
and the beautiful moon on the sky, although we never know – if you have this knowledge,
please share it with the undersigned – how the movie ends, if this spectacular,
divine, buoyant contribution from Mr. Bagheri will have had any consequence and
eventually make the suicide pact redundant…
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