"Taste of Cherry" (1998)

Taste of Cherry often plays more like a philosophical or theological thesis than a film. The film’s simple, Sartrean premise deals with man contemplating suicide and attempting to convince various individuals to bury his soon to be deceased body. He’s hoping to take sleeping pills and lay down in a shallow grave, believing if God still wants him to live than he’ll still be alive by the time the next morning arrives. Director Abbas Kiarostami uses this concept for a deeply meditative, contemplative film. There’s a tragicomic quality to the story, borne of its existential brooding, which creates a gorgeous, haunting inevitability to what’s taking place. Taste of Cherry is largely a film about individuals at ideological impasses, stemming from the man’s unwillingness to reconsider his suicide. But the film isn’t solely interested in oblique, weighty themes. Kiarostami takes time to observe the beauty of life, human nature, and the rural landscape of Iran. The film is about a man who’s world-weary and tired of life, but it's also attempting to capture a particular slice of Iran at a given time by observing the views of different classes, ethnicities, and generations. Kiarostami watches extended conversations carried on in long car rides. He finds horror and confusion here, and divides amongst people of different backgrounds and persuasions. But he also discovers a shared sense of humanity, where individuals don’t wish to be involved in this morally and ethically questionable job -- even potentially the suicidal man himself -- no matter how high the price being paid is.

Grade: A-