SHIRIN

Iran

2008

94 minutes

Iranian women attend a screening of a film based on the legendary romance of star-crossed Persian lovers Shirin and Khosrow. The film itself is never seen onscreen; only its soundtrack and dialogue is heard, while the camera focuses on the women in the theatre and their responses to the story. Smart minimalist experiment kept from crossing over into multimedia art installation by its fascinating meditation on the very nature of watching a film.

An Abbas Kiarostami production.

Directed and produced by Mr. Kiarostami; screenplay by Mohammed Rahmanian, based on the novel Khosrow and Shirin by Farideh Galbou and on the epic poem The Story of Khosrow and Shirin by Hakim Nezami Ganjavi; music by Heshmat Sanjari, Morteza Hananeh, Hossein Dehlavi, Samin Baghchehban; lyrics by Sheikh Farid Aldin Attar; directors of photography (colour), Mahmoud Kalari, Houman Behmanesh; film editors, Mr. Kiarostami, Arash Sadegh; sound, M. Reza Delpak.

Screened: distributor advance press screening, UCI El Corte Inglés 6 (Lisbon), June 18th 2010.