Hello, my name's Justin McLuhan. I'm here today with Will Sloan.

And you're listening to The Important Cinema Club. And today, we're talking about Abbas Kirastami,

a director that has quite a reputation. Some would say an intimidating one.

That's, in fact, what I was about to say to you, this episode scares me a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

Because the people who love Kyristami, like, there is no other filmmaker. Yeah, like, this is cinema for them. Yeah, and it's almost like a spiritual connection to him. Now, don't get me wrong, I like Kyristami. Mm-hmm. I think you like Kyristami, too. I do, yes. But, like, we're casual fans of Kyristami, you know?

Yeah, well, I think his films comeyristami too. I do, yes. But like we're casual fans of Kyristami, you know?

Yeah, well, I think his films come with a level of challenge to them. That he's someone that I respect a lot. Like, I would go see his films when they played, like, at the Cinemattec that, like, the University of Toronto did. That's why I saw a taste of cherry when they played on 35 millimeter. I saw it there too, yeah.

But I'll have to say, like, I don't own any of his movies on Blu-ray or DVD.

It doesn't resonate emotionally in ways that it does with someone like Johnson Rosenbaum or who loves to talk about Kyrostomi and actually literally wrote the book on him. Yeah, and in fact, I was in my head thinking of him in comparison to some of the other kind of slow cinema autours, you know, the ones, you're like, I don't... Tarkosky.

Yeah, I don't love... Tarkoski. Yeah, I don't love him the way I love Brasanne or the way I love Ozu. And I was kind of hoping that this week, perhaps we could open that up a little. Maybe he would open up for me. And I still am not in love with him, but I respect

him more than ever. And I feel like I am at a good stage in my lifelong journey with

Kyrostami. The interesting thing about Kyrostami is that out of all of those kind of art house

masters, he's the one that's the most metatextual about his work.

It's impossible to go see a Kirastami film and not think about him making movies.

Because his masterpieces, like Close Up, are about making movies and art and cinema.

Even his 1992 film, Life and Nothing More, is about a Kyristami analog driving through Iran, looking for the boy that starred in Kyristami's film, where is the friend's home?

So, like, I think that that's something that I find really fascinating about him, that for a filmmaker who is often discussed in terms as being kind of, he does something that nobody else does in the best way possible, that his movies

are inherently about his movies. And it's almost impossible to separate both of them.

Yeah. And in fact, maybe Brasson and Ozu came to mind to me because, like them, he's somebody

who has this totally unique style, somebody who, you know, is not really a cinephile,

the way that some directors are, like almost seems to come out of his style through his own,

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