CINEPHILE...

Thu 6th Oct 6.00pm: WHERE IS THE FRIEND’S HOUSE? (U) 1987 Iran 83mins, Persian with English subtitles, dir Abbas Kiarostami.

The first film in Abbas Kiarostami’s sublime Koker Trilogy takes a simple premise—a boy searches for the home of his classmate, whose school notebook he has accidentally taken—and transforms it into a miraculous child’s-eye adventure of the everyday. As our young hero zigzags determinedly across two towns, aided (and sometimes misdirected) by those he encounters, his quest becomes both a revealing portrait of rural Iranian society in all its richness and complexity and a touching parable about the meaning of personal responsibility. Sensitive and profound, Where Is the Friend’s House? is shot through with all the beauty, tension, and wonder a single day can contain. The favourite film of many filmmakers…