9 / 10
Taste of Cherry is Abbas Kiarostami’s 1997 Iranian drama and one of the most demanding works in the director’s filmography. Homayoun Ershadi plays Mr. Badii, a middle-aged Tehran man who drives around the city outskirts looking for someone willing to bury him after he commits suicide. The screenplay was written by Kiarostami. The film was produced by Abbas Kiarostami Productions and released in Iran in 1997. The work won the Palme d’Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, sharing the award with Shohei Imamura’s The Eel.
The film works as existential drama and as study in the conditions of suicidal commitment. The work refuses the elaborate plot mechanics that drama cinema typically deploys. The narrative is structurally simple. Mr. Badii drives around the outskirts of Tehran. He encounters three potential collaborators. Each declines or attempts to dissuade him. The structural simplicity allows the film to develop philosophical content at depth that more elaborate plots would not permit. The work has acquired reputation as one of the most demanding contemporary international films and continues to support new interpretive engagement across decades.
The Driving Sequences
The film organizes its narrative around extended driving sequences as Mr. Badii handles the Tehran outskirts in his Range Rover. The sequences operate at serious runtime that depicts the actual experience of driving through the depicted landscape. The cinematography uses long takes that develop the particular atmospheric conditions of the Iranian dry hillside terrain. The driving works as both immediate dramatic situation and as broader argumentative structure for the protagonist’s philosophical position.
The driving sequences also function as structural device that allows the film to develop philosophical dialogue without elaborate location work. Mr. Badii encounters his three potential collaborators in the vehicle. The conversations develop philosophical content within the contained vehicle environment while the depicted landscape provides atmospheric variation. The technique allows the work to operate at intense philosophical engagement within minimal production complexity. The work demonstrates how restrained production approaches can produce major philosophical content that elaborate productions might have weakened through visual distraction.
For Writers
Restrained production approaches can produce major philosophical content that elaborate productions might weaken through visual distraction. Taste of Cherry develops sustained philosophical engagement within minimal production complexity. This applies to fiction. Consider whether your philosophical content benefits from elaborate setting work or from contained focused environments. Contained environments often support intense engagement that elaborate environments dilute. The choice depends on whether the work’s content benefits from atmospheric variation or from sustained focused engagement.
The Three Encounters
The film organizes Mr. Badii’s encounters with three potential collaborators across the runtime. Each encounter develops different perspective on the suicidal commitment Mr. Badii proposes. The young Kurdish soldier represents religious resistance to suicide that prevents engagement with Mr. Badii’s request. The Afghan seminarian represents reasoned theological response that argues against the moral acceptability of the proposed action. The Turkish taxidermist represents older man’s experience-based perspective that engages with Mr. Badii’s depression while declining to support the particular request.
The three encounters develop dialectical engagement with the central question without resolving into definitive position. Each respondent offers particular reasons for declining. Each engagement produces additional dimensions of the moral situation. The structural design uses the accumulating perspectives to develop philosophical content that single confrontation could not have supported. The work refuses to endorse any particular response. The audience constructs philosophical position through accumulated engagement with the multiple perspectives rather than receiving any definitive answer. The technique demonstrates how multiple perspectives can develop philosophical content that single-perspective treatment cannot match.
For Writers
Multiple perspectives can develop philosophical content that single-perspective treatment cannot match. Taste of Cherry uses three encounter sequences to develop dialectical engagement with the central question without imposing resolution. This applies to fiction. Consider whether your philosophical content benefits from multiple perspectives or works through single dominant perspective. Multiple perspectives allow dialectical development. Single perspective allows sustained focused argument. The choice depends on whether the work’s content benefits from dialectical movement or from concentrated argument.
The Famous Ending
The film’s ending has produced sustained critical engagement for over two decades. The penultimate sequence depicts Mr. Badii preparing for the suicide attempt and lying down in the prepared grave. The screen darkens. A storm begins. The audience cannot determine whether Mr. Badii completes the suicide. The film then shifts to documentary footage depicting Kiarostami directing the actor Ershadi alongside members of the production crew. The footage shows the production environment that produced the preceding fictional content.
The ending works as structural argument that refuses to resolve either the immediate dramatic situation or the broader philosophical question. The work transforms the fictional content into explicit construction that the production process produced. The audience must construct interpretation that integrates the fictional content with the documentary framing. The technique has produced wide critical interpretation including readings that emphasize the documentary footage as life-affirming structure, readings that emphasize the documentary footage as additional layer of constructed meaning, and readings that emphasize the documentary footage as deliberate disruption of conventional cinematic resolution. The work refuses to authorize any particular reading.
For Writers
Endings that refuse conventional resolution can produce sustained interpretive engagement that conventional endings cannot match. Taste of Cherry has produced sustained critical engagement for over two decades through its particular refused-resolution ending. This applies to fiction. Consider whether your endings provide resolution or produce sustained interpretive engagement. Both approaches are legitimate but produce different reader relationships with the work. Refused resolution requires preparation that the refusal reads as deliberate engagement rather than as authorial failure.
Craft Note
Kiarostami’s structural decision to commit to extended driving sequences and dialogue-only philosophical engagement required careful preparation in casting and production approach. The actors needed to develop their particular roles through extended improvisation and discussion with the director rather than through conventional screenplay-based preparation. The non-professional cast members brought particular authentic qualities that conventional actors might not have produced. The director’s working method depended on building trust with cast members across extended preparation that allowed the dialogue sequences to develop with the particular texture the work required. The lesson applies to creative work broadly. Some work requires preparation methods that depart from conventional industry practice. The choice to develop alternative preparation methods imposes real investment but produces work that conventional methods could not have generated.
Verdict
Taste of Cherry is one of the most demanding works in Abbas Kiarostami’s filmography and one of the foundational documents of contemporary Iranian art cinema. The driving sequences develop philosophical content within restrained production approach that elaborate productions might have weakened. The three encounters develop dialectical engagement with the central question through accumulated perspective rather than through imposed resolution. The famous ending produces sustained interpretive engagement through its refusal of conventional cinematic resolution. The work is essential viewing for audiences interested in Iranian cinema, in philosophical cinema, in Kiarostami, or in films that systematically refuse conventional dramatic structures while developing major philosophical content. Viewers should approach the work as committed engagement.
FAQ
How does Taste of Cherry compare to other Kiarostami films?
Taste of Cherry represents one of the principal works in Kiarostami’s filmography alongside Close-Up (1990), Through the Olive Trees (1994), and Certified Copy (2010). The director’s filmography includes wide range across multiple registers. Taste of Cherry works at the most demanding philosophical register that Kiarostami attempted. Audiences engaging with Kiarostami should consider Taste of Cherry alongside the other major works.
Should I watch Taste of Cherry before or after other Iranian cinema?
The film works effectively for viewers with existing engagement with contemporary international art cinema. Viewers without that engagement may find the work demanding. Beginning with more accessible Iranian cinema including A Separation (2011) or Children of Heaven (1997) allows audiences to develop familiarity with Iranian cinema vocabulary before engaging with Taste of Cherry’s more demanding approach.
How does the film handle its difficult subject matter?
The film engages with suicide as philosophical material rather than as immediate psychological situation. The work does not depict the actual suicide attempt or its outcome. The film works through dialogue and reflection rather than through dramatic depiction. Viewers approaching the work should understand that the suicide functions as philosophical occasion rather than as central dramatic event.
How does the film fit Iranian cinema?
Taste of Cherry represents one of the principal works in Iranian art cinema and one of the most internationally recognized Iranian films through its Palme d’Or recognition. The work sits within the established Iranian cinema tradition of philosophical engagement with distinct dramatic situations. The film helped establish international audience appetite for Iranian cinema that subsequent productions have continued to develop.
How does the runtime function?
The film runs approximately ninety-nine minutes. The compressed runtime supports the concentrated philosophical engagement that the work develops. Extended treatment would have dispersed the accumulated dialectical movement. The runtime is appropriate to the structural ambitions the work attempts.
What is the cultural impact of the film?
Taste of Cherry produced wide cultural impact internationally through its Palme d’Or recognition and subsequent critical engagement. The work continues to receive sustained critical interpretation across multiple decades. The film’s standing as one of the most demanding contemporary international films has grown across the years since its release.