The first film in Abbas Kiarostami’s sublime, interlacing trilogy of films set in the northern Iranian village of Koker takes a premise of fable-like simplicity—a boy searches for the home of his classmate whose school notebook he has accidentally taken—and transforms it into a miraculous, child’s-eye adventure of the everyday. As our young hero zigzags determinedly across two towns aided (and sometimes misdirected) by those he encounters, his quest becomes both a revealing portrait of Iranian society in all its richness and complexity and a touching parable about the meaning of personal responsibility. Shot through with all the wonder, beauty, tension, and mystery one day can contain, Where is the Friend’s House? established Kiarostami’s reputation as one cinema’s most sensitive and profound humanists.

A NOTE ABOUT THIS FILM
by Robert Delaney, Film Arts Programmer

Director Abbas Kiarostami was a creative photographer, poet, screenwriter, graphic designer, painter, illustrator and filmmaker, making him one of the key figures of the Iranian New Wave movement. Where is the Friend’s House is an insightful, inspiring, empathetic portrait of childhood, where Kiarostami vividly expresses the weight and tension of everyday struggle. The film also illustrates his signature landscape cinematography and the beauty of the Koker region.