Saturday, September 12, 2015

Ta'm e guilass (Taste of Cherry) (1997)

Today's film is Taste of Cherry, which was filmed in Iran.  The story focuses on a suicidal man, but what is interesting is how it was made.

 The man wants to kill himself for an unspecified reason.  He wants to be buried under an unspecified certain tree, he just needs someone to throw dirt on his body, and he will pay for it.  He asks three strangers to help him.  The first one is a timid soldier who runs away.  The second one is a seminarian who lectures him on the morals of his choice.  Fjnally, he finds someone who will help him.  This person attempted suicide before and shared his story with him.

So what is unique is how this was filmed.  It was more ad-libbed than scripted. The director would actually sit in either the driver or passenger seat and start up a conversation. Then the film was edited together and it looks like the two actors are talking to each other in the car.




 It ends with the main guy lying down in his makeshift grave and the scene fades to black.  Then, all if a sudden, the filmmakers appear with all their cameras and equipment. Then they film some random soldiers rolling around in the grass.  The ending is like a punch in the face surprise, like Just Kidding! It was a movie the whole time!  I will give this film a 6/10.

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