Out of the Past 2017 / 76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami / Iran 2016
After his departure from this world, a titan of modern film became the protagonist of a deeply personal and harmonious portrait compiled by his friend and colleague. This poetic collection of moments of creative ecstasy and joie de vivre presents Kiarostami with a heightened sense of immediacy that forgoes commentary and secondhand memories.
It was enough to train a lens on Abbas Kiarostami in the midst of his creative fervour – the result was fascinating material for an inspirational movie, a humble tribute to the Iranian filmmaker who died last year. Its creator, acclaimed photographer Seifollah Samadian, established a close, inspired partnership with the director. Although they were busy preparing for shoots and installations, they were constantly enchanted with unexpected visual stimuli. This compilation of shared moments gleaned over the course of many years touchingly presents Kiarostami as a remarkable person who, with his every action, opened his arms wide to the world and to life. And Samadian’s impressionist shots from trips through Iran’s varied landscape are attuned to Kiarostami’s impulsively instinctive relationship to his surroundings, far from the routine vision of an intellectual filmmaker. Without the need of additional commentary and interviews, Samadian has succeeded in creating a compelling and unaffected portrait of a titan of modern film.
Jakub Jiřiště
76 min / Color, DCP
Director Seifollah Samadian
/ Screenplay Seifollah Samadian
/ Dir. of Photography Seifollah Samadian
/ Music Peter Soleymanipour
/ Editor Seifollah Samadian
/ Art Director Seifollah Samadian
/ Producer Seifollah Samadian
/ Production Tassvir Film Center
/ Sales Iranian Independents
Seifollah Samadian (b. 1954, Tehran, Iran) started his career as a photographer at the end of the 1960s, adding an interest in documentary filmmaking in subsequent decades. He has achieved international recognition as a DOP and photographer who has worked with world-renowned filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami (e.g. ABC Africa, 2001) and Martin Scorsese. After the end of the Iran-Iraq War, he established himself at the forefront of the internationally acclaimed wave of Iranian photographers. He also became editor-in-chief of the top Iranian magazine on photography (Tassvir), curator of photography exhibits, and a professor of photojournalism at the University of Tehran. For 30 years Samadian documented the life of director Abbas Kiarostami, and he is now at work on another movie that will look back at their 20 years of attending the Cannes film festival together.
Iranian Independents
P.O. Box 15875-4769, , Tehran
Iran
Phone: +98 912 319 8693
E-mail: [email protected]
Seifollah Samadian
Film Director
Mohammad Atebbai
Sales Agent
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