Os outros de Abbas Kiarostami

Abstract

This work focuses on studying the issue of otherness in the cinematography of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. Most of the director's works have a strong self-referential trait, but little in depth in theoretical studies in the field of cinema and audiovisual. Therefore, this self-referentiality is configured into Kiarostami's other self and another self not similar to Kiarostami. Furthermore, in this otherness of the director there is a feeling of imposture that leads to a feeling of exile and death. Such characteristics are present in the films Close-Up (1990), Taste of Cherry (1997) and The Wind Will Take Us (1999). Kiarostami's first other is Hossein Sabzian, protagonist of Close-Up, a docufiction that portrays the case of Sabzian, a humble man who pretended to be Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to a middle-class family promising to make a film about them. Kiarostami stated in several interviews how much he identified with Sabzian, as he deceived others and was also deceived by them, in addition to the feeling of being an impostor and the desire to have an idealized self, just like Sabzian. Kiarostami's second other is Badii, the protagonist of Taste of Cherry, a middle-aged man who is looking for someone to help him in his suicide. What makes it different from the director is the way it was constructed, in order to be just a means to expose Kiarostami's reflections on autocide. Kiarostami's third and final other is Bezhad Dorani, protagonist of The Wind Will Take Us Away, a journalist who goes to the village of Siah Dareh in Iranian Kurdistan to document a funeral celebration held by local villagers. Bezhad is, like Sabzian, a character that Kiarostami assumes has many of his own characteristics and this causes him to be considered another of the director. To analyze these objects, a multiple and transversal perspective was necessary, which is why we decided to work with two methodologies at the same time. On the one hand, narrative film analysis, conceived through the analysis of interviews, speeches, and testimonies by Kiarostami about himself and his films. The use of these statements by the director fits into the Theory of Filmmakers, which will be the second methodological basis used in this research. From this interweaving, we believe we can construct a broad and multifaceted thought on the question of otherness in Kiarostami's cinema.