As noble as his ideals are, watching a series of interminably lengthy conversations inside a car makes for stultifying viewing. And the abrupt ending, which highlights the fictional nature of the whole enterprise, is mystifying.
Taste of Cherry(طعم گيلاس)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Iran, France · 1997
1h 39m
Director Abbas Kiarostami
Starring Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali Moradi
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
A middle-aged man from Tehran, Mr. Badii, seeks someone to bury him after he commits suicide. Badii meets with numerous people, asking them to take on the job, but initially has no success. Eventually, Badii finds a man who needs the money, but who, in the meanwhile, may talk himself out of a job...
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
An exquisite return to cinema at its most intimate, allusive and humanist. Without a firebomb, muscle-bound star or gunfight in sight, it explodes with the most fragile and combustible substance on earth: human nature.
San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann
A warning: The pace is very slow in Taste of Cherry, with long takes and leisurely, repetitious shots of Mr. Badii's car twisting through a hilly countryside. Kiarostami is in no rush, but the respect and love he shows for his characters, and the confidence and simplicity of his technique, make Taste of Cherry a satisfying experience.
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
This tale of a despondent man's attempt to find someone to help him commit suicide never really hits the emotional heights it should; it may be that the film's proponents are confusing simplicity with profundity. [30 Sept 1997]
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
This outstanding work — so meditative — is clearly an affirmation of life (and never more provocatively than in the film’s unusual coda, in which moviemaking itself becomes part of the discussion). It’s also so grounded in the real emotional scope of ordinary people that the magnitude of the subject is answered in the most mysteriously matter-of-fact way.
Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten
I have to report that I, personally, just don't get it. I intellectually understand what occurs in the movie; I just can't make the leap into calling it a humanistic treasure about life's big questions. Slow and monotonous, the film moves at a deliberate pace and culminates in a meta-fictional moment that is either infuriatingly trite or enigmatic.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Excruciatingly boring.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Exquisite.
San Francisco Examiner by Walter Addiego
A simple, serene and occasionally humorous film about a subject that is complex, emotional and usually treated with solemnity.
Users who liked this film also liked
Close-Up
(کلوزآپ ، نمای نزدیک)
A young man is arrested for impersonating a famous filmmaker.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Iran • 1990
- Director Abbas Kiarostami
- Cast Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Monoochehr Ahankhah, Mahrokh Ahankhah, Nayer Mohseni Zonoozi
- Genre Crime, Documentary, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Amazon Video
Giant
(자이언트)
Three siblings separated in childhood plot their vengeance in a cutthroat city rife with power, deceit, and fortune.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2010
- Creator Young Chul Jang, Kyung Soon Jung
- Cast Lee Beom-soo, Hwang Jung-eum, Lee Duck-hwa, Joo Sang-wook, Nam Ji-hyun, Moon Hee-kyung
- Genre Drama
- Available on Rakuten Viki, Kocowa, KoreaOnDemand
Criminal Lovers
(Les Amants criminels)
Their idea of foreplay was murder
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1999
- Director François Ozon
- Cast Natacha Régnier, Jérémie Renier, Miki Manojlović, Salim Kechiouche, Yasmine Belmadi, Bernard Maume
- Genre Horror, Thriller, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
My Only Sunshine
(Hayat Var)
Portrait of a lost childhood.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria • 2009
- Director Reha Erdem
- Cast Elit İşcan, Erdal Beşikçioğlu, Banu Fotocan, Önder Açıkbaş, Halim Ercan, Levend Yılmaz
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Wind Will Carry Us
(باد ما را خواهد برد)
A city man has more to learn than he thinks from the townspeople where his dying relative lives.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Iran, France • 1999
- Director Abbas Kiarostami
- Cast Behzad Dorani, Noghre Asadi, Roushan Karam Elmi, Bahman Ghobadi, Shahpour Ghobadi, Reihan Heidari
- Genre Drama
- Available on Vudu, Amazon Video
The Thief
(Вор)
He isn’t the right man for her, but she can’t seem to realise it.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Russia, France • 1997
- Director Pavel Chukhray
- Cast Vladimir Mashkov, Yekaterina Rednikova, Mikhail Filipchuk, Yuri Belyayev, Amaliya Mordvinova, Natalya Pozdnyakova
- Genre Crime, Drama
- Available on Klassiki
The White Balloon
(بادکنک سفید)
Seven-year-old Razieh and her brother set out for the pet shop, after Razieh sets her heart on a goldfish in the shop window.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Iran • 1995
- Director Jafar Panahi
- Cast Aida Mohammadkhani, Mohsen Kafili, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy, Anna Borkowska, Mohammad Shahani
- Genre Drama, Family
- Available on Criterion Channel
Certified Copy
(Copie conforme)
There's more to their new relationship than meets the eye.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy, Belgium • 2010
- Director Abbas Kiarostami
- Cast Juliette Binoche, William Shimell, Jean-Claude Carrière, Agathe Natanson, Gianna Giachetti, Adrian Moore
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel, AMC+, AMC+ Amazon Channel, IFC Films Unlimited Apple TV Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Kanopy
Where Is the Friend's House?
(خانهی دوست کجاست؟)
After accidentally taking his friend's notebook, an 8-year-old boy sets out to return it.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Iran • 1987
- Director Abbas Kiarostami
- Cast Babek Ahmed Poor, Ahmed Ahmed Poor, Kheda Barech Defai, Iran Outari, Ait Ansari, Sadika Taohidi
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
And Soon the Darkness
Remember the way Hitchcock kept you on the edge of your seat...?
- United Kingdom, France • 1970
- Director Robert Fuest
- Cast Pamela Franklin, Michele Dotrice, Sandor Elès, John Nettleton, Clare Kelly, Hana Maria Pravda
- Genre Horror, Mystery, Thriller
- Available on Shudder, Kanopy
The Old Man and the Sea
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1990
- Director Jud Taylor
- Cast Anthony Quinn, Gary Cole, Patricia Clarkson, Joe Santos, Valentina Quinn, Francesco Quinn
- Genre Action, Drama, TV Movie
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, VUDU Free, Freevee, Plex, Plex Channel
Hospitalité
(歓待)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Japan • 2011
- Director Koji Fukada
- Cast Kenji Yamauchi, Kiki Sugino, Kanji Furutachi, Bryerly Long, Erika Ono, Kumi Hyodo
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Fandor Amazon Channel, Hoopla, Film Movement Plus, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, AsianCrush, Cineverse, Kanopy
Final Cut: Ladies and Gentlemen
(Final Cut: Hölgyeim és uraim)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Hungary • 2012
- Director György Pálfi
- Cast
- Genre Documentary, Drama, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes
(Pizza, birra, faso)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Argentina • 1998
- Director Adrián Caetano, Bruno Stagnaro
- Cast Héctor Anglada, Jorge Sesán, Pamela Jordán, Adrián Yospe, Daniel Di Biase, Walter Díaz
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Bread and Alley
(نان و کوچه)
Returning home from an errand, a young boy finds his way blocked by a menacing dog.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Iran • 1970
- Director Abbas Kiarostami
- Cast Reza Hashemi, Mehdi Shahravanfar
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
A Thousand Girls Like Me
A courageous young Afghan woman forces her father to stand trial for years of sexual abuse.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Afghanistan, France, Netherlands • 2018
- Director Sahra Mani
- Cast
- Genre Documentary
- Available on Kanopy
We Still Have the Deep Black Night
(Ainda Temos a Imensidão da Noite)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Brazil, Germany • 2019
- Director Gustavo Galvão
- Cast Ayla Gresta, Gustavo Halfeld, Steven Lange, Marat Descartes, Vanessa Gusmão
- Genre Drama
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, YouTube, Hoopla
Jagame Thandhiram
(ஜகமே தந்திரம்)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, India • 2021
- Director Karthik Subbaraj
- Cast Dhanush, James Cosmo, Joju George, Kalaiyarasan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sharath Ravi
- Genre Crime, Comedy
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
Atlantide
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- • 2021
- Director Yuri Ancarani
- Cast Daniele Barison, Maila Dabalà, Bianka Berényi, Alberto Tedesco, Jacopo Torcellan
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
impossible not to come out of this film a completely different person