The Cinema of Abbas Kiarostami Series Presents "The Traveler"

Kiarostami’s first feature focuses on a boy in a provincial city so avid to get to Tehran to see a soccer match that he’ll lie to adults and cheat other kids. A quest film that’s also a study of youthful obsession, it’s filmed in edgy black and white with a quiet energy that matches its hero’s. THE TRAVELER has an acridly ironic ending and one of the best performances by a child in Kiarostami’s early work.

Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Run time: 74 mins
Format: Digital
Language: Persian (Farsi) with English subtitles

Abbas Kiarostami is one of the most important filmmakers to emerge from the late 20th century – a filmmaker once described as being, “without doubt the most distinguished and celebrated among Iranian filmmakers in the world of cinema.” This series will include Kiarostami’s wide-ranging work in fiction and non-fiction from the 1970s to the mid-2000s, including feature-length and short films. The series especially addresses what has been identified as Kiarostami’s “cinema of participation.” As he says about his films, audiences should, “furnish the meaning of the event,” an approach he describes as, “exactly the opposite of what…Hollywood [does when] it strips them of any imagination, decision-making, or intellectual capacity.” The substantial body of work written about Kiarostami lacks consensus about the specific “meaning” that we see in his films; rather, such evaluations highlight and even celebrate their openness. As we appreciate Kiarostami’s work in this series, we might follow the guidance of several commentators who suggest that Kiarostami’s cinema does not offer answers, but instead asks questions.

This series is produced in partnership with the Portland State University School of Film. These films are presented as part of the curriculum for The Cinema of Abbas Kiarostami, taught by Portland State University Professor of Film, Dr. Mark Berrettini. Berrettini will be on hand to introduce each screening.