Movies - Taste of Cherry

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	Movies - Taste of Cherry

Taste of Cherry (in Persian طعم گيلاس Ta'm-e gilass) is a 1997 film by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. The minimalist work deals with a man who is driving through a city suburb looking for somebody to assist him in suicide.

Kiarostami's masterpiece was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in the year of its release, tied with Shohei Imamura's The Eel, though it was also one of Roger Ebert's most hated films of that year: he found it boring above all.

The Criterion Collection entered Taste of Cherry into their exclusive film collection on June 1st, 1999.

The film was forbidden in Iran because of the taboo on suicide.

Plot

A man (Homayon Ershadi) drives through Tehran looking for a man who wants to put earth on the grave he already dug, after he will have committed suicide. He offers a large amount of money in return. The film doesn't reveal the reason(s) for his urge to die. He talks three men into his car. The first is a young, shy soldier who is very hesitant and doesn't want anything to do with the man. The second is a seminarist who has religious objections against suicide. The third is willing to help him, but also tries to talk him out of it: he wanted to commit suicide himself a long time ago, but chose to live when he tasted cherries.

In the film you only see the face of the protagonist or his passenger (in reality director Kiarostami was always sitting next to the person he filmed), besides long takes of the car driving through the Iranian landscape.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Taste of Cherry ]

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