The Video Essay | Abbas Kiarostami: A Transversal Filmography

In this exploration of Kiarostami’s youths, one gets the feeling of a single character moving linearly through the films.
Cristian Tormo

The Video Essay is a joint project of MUBI and FILMADRID International Film Festival. Film analysis and criticism forged a new path with the arrival of the video essay. The limits of this discipline are constantly expanding; new essayists are finding innovative ways to study the history of cinema through moving images. This non-competitive section of the festival is designed to offer this format the platform and visibility it deserves.

This selection of seven video essays was programmed by the editors of Notebook and the programmers of FILMADRID. In the coming weeks, a video essay from the program will premiere each Friday on Notebook.

“Abbas Kiarostami: A Transversal Filmography” explores the connections between the child and teenage characters featured in seven of the Iranian director’s films, finding parallels between various characters and elements. One gets the feeling of a single character moving linearly through the films. As they transition from childhood to adolescence to old age, sometimes in the blink of an eye, their labor becomes another character.

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Notebook is a daily, international film publication. Our mission is to guide film lovers searching, lost or adrift in an overwhelming sea of content. We offer text, images, sounds and video as critical maps, passways and illuminations to the worlds of contemporary and classic film. Notebook is a MUBI publication.

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