ABC Africa
Iran
2001
85 Min
Color
1.33:1
Farsi, English
Synopsis
Uganda, March 2000. At the request of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, Abbas Kiarostami and his assistant, Seifollah Samadian, arrive in Kampala. For ten days, their DV camera captures and caresses the faces of a thousand children, all orphans, whose parents have died of AIDS. It records tears and laughter, music and silence, life and death. It attests to Africa’s sunny resilience to so much suffering and disease. –Cannes Film Festival
Director
Abbas Kiarostami
Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this started his career as a filmmaker at the age of 30. Since then he has made many movies and has become one of the most important figures in contemporary Iranian film. He is also a major figure in the arts world, and has had numerous gallery exhibitions of his photography, short films and poetry. He is an iconic figure for what he has done, and he has achieved it all by believing in the arts and the creativity of his mind. —World Cinema Foundation
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Lemmycaution
30Oct12
In the documentary about the film, a man says that they wanted to make this film to have a "kiarostami product" about the situation of HIV in Uganda... That's what it is to me.
João BotaDouro
14Jan12
Finaly seen this kiarostami. One more stunning film by this great man! Thank you Abbas.
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ABC AFRICA, or..."Dear Mr. Kiarostami"
By Bobby Wise on January 25, 2011
Dear Mr. Kiarostami:
The title of your freewheeling documentary almost reflects the approach to cinema that is exhibited. A, B, C. An effort at simplicity. A reduction of cinema to its most… read review
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