Photo: Pedro J Pacheco / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Abbas Kiarostami is one of those filmmakers who makes you rethink what cinema is even supposed to do. Born in Tehran in 1940, he spent decades quietly building one of the most singular bodies of work in world cinema — and I mean world cinema, not as a polite label but because he genuinely belonged to no one country's tradition. Films like "Where Is the Friend's Home?" and "Taste of Cherry" have this unhurried, almost meditative quality where you're watching a road, a conversation, a face, and somehow you end up somewhere profound without quite knowing how you got there. He won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, earned the Praemium Imperiale, and collected honorary doctorates from the Sorbonne and Venice — the whole international establishment recognized what he was. But the awards almost feel beside the point. What stays with me is the honesty of his gaze. He died in 2016, and cinema quietly lost one of its great poets.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Abbas Kiarostami
- Name (Japanese)
- アッバス・キアロスタミ
- Reading
- あっばす・きあろすたみ
- Born
- June 22, 1940 – July 4, 2016
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Cancer / Dragon
- Origin
- Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran
- Occupation
- film director / screenwriter / photographer / film producer / poet
2. Background
- University
- University of Tehran
Awards & achievements
- Officer of the Legion of Honour
- 2003 Konrad Wolf Prize
- 2004 Praemium Imperiale
- 2014 Austrian Decoration for Science and Art
- 2003 honorary doctor of Ca' Foscari University of Venice
- Palme d'Or
- Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival
- 2010 honorary doctor of the Sorbonne Nouvelle University
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Abbas Kiarostami born?
June 22, 1940 – July 4, 2016.
Where is Abbas Kiarostami from?
Abbas Kiarostami is from Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran.
What does Abbas Kiarostami do?
Abbas Kiarostami works as film director, screenwriter, photographer, film producer, poet.
Film director — see all → · Screenwriter — see all → · More people from Iran →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.