Saturday, April 30, 2016

Where Is the Friend's House?

Where Is the Friend's House? is an Iranian film written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami. It follows a boy as he searches for the house of a friend so he can return a lost school book. Their school work must be done in the composition book, and this book belongs to a child in another village who has already gotten in trouble 3 times for not having his book. The child's teacher has threatened him with expulsion if it happens again. This is an engrossing movie. I feel like I now know these people better than they know each other.

I watched it online with English subtitles, but now I can't even find a subtitled trailer. Very frustrating.

DVD Beaver calls it "a film of classic depth". Cinema of the World and Time Out have positive articles. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 100%.

8 comments:

  1. I was quite engrossed with your review of this film. It's too bad you can't find a trailer. Seems these movies come and go at random.

    I really liked the phrase you wrote: "I feel like I now know these people better than they know each other." It shows how intimate the characters were with the viewer and how ordinary people and ordinary circumstances can impact the viewer's life in an extraordinary way.

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    1. It's interesting how involved I can get with the characters in movies, drawn into their lives. It's the same with books, which , I guess, is why I like some of the series so much. They start feeling like people I actually know. :)

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  2. Darn it! This one sounded REALLY good, too! :(

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    1. They do -as Elizabeth says- come and go at random. It's available on hulu if you have a subscription there http://www.hulu.com/watch/684375 . I don't :( I can't find it on DVD at all.

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    2. No, I only have Netflix or whatever is free online. :(

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    3. I don't even have Netflix. I get whatever comes over the regular airwaves on tv or what I can find for free online or what I decide to buy on DVD. I may have to look into Netflix or Hulu someday....

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  3. This film sounds wonderful. I love seeing foreign films because they say so much about those cultures.I'm going to keep looking for it because it is a part of the world many of us don't know a lot about and I'd love to know more about. Happy May!

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    1. The houses and landscape is a lot different from what I'm used to, that's for sure. I think the family/school relationships show that we are more alike than different across culture.

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