In the Time of Kiarostami: Writings on Iranian Cinema

by Godfrey Cheshire

“I admire Godfrey for his strong support of Iranian cinema and his efforts to introduce Iranian films to American audiences. Although movies are shown by distributors and exhibitors, it’s really the critics who bring the audience. Godfrey’s reviews also help us in Iran by providing critical support against those who attempt to suppress us and keep us from working.”— Jafar Panahi, filmmaker “So impressed by his first encounters with contemporary Iranian films, Godfrey Cheshire decided to do a deep dive into Iranian literature, art and society, not to mention film history. The happy result is this book, displaying an incredible range of knowledge about what is the most remarkable film movement of the past decades, while offering a deep exploration of both this cinema’s deep roots as well as its celebrated achievements.”— Richard Pena, Professor of Film and Media Studies, Columbia University “Godfrey Cheshire has been the preeminent American critic on Iranian cinema for decades. With rare access to master filmmakers, Cheshire weaves together rich, personal stories, with history, culture and his brilliant insights. His passion is infectious. This is his definitive book.”— Ramin Bahrani, Oscar-nominated filmmaker “What’s most remarkable about this volume is its transparency. Throughout, in new, rewritten and republished pieces, you can see Godfrey’s questing and questioning mind latching onto a subject for which he has a deep affinity, learning as much as he can about it—by pondering the works themselves, talking to their creators, and absorbing the culture that birthed the scene—and then figuring out a way to transmit his enthusiasm to the widest American audience possible.”— Matt Zoller Seitz First printing of 1,000 copies.

Genres: Film

309 pages, Paperback

Published December 13, 2022

Reviews

[David Sterritt]

My good old friend and valued critical colleague Godfrey Cheshire is one of the world’s chief authorities on Iranian film, and his new book “In the Time of Kiarostami: Writings on Iranian Cinema” collects a generous selection of essays and reviews first published in various outlets over almost 30 years beginning in the early 1990s. Much of the focus is on the eponymous Abbas, but Makhmalbaf, Panahi, Mehrjui, Farhadi, and other auteurs also get varying degrees of attention, as do certain areas of Iranian poetry and philosophy with clear connections to films and filmmakers under discussion. As always with Godfrey, the expertise is solid and the writing is smart and supple. Reading it has prompted me to revisit several favorites and discover a few films I don’t remember seeing before. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this important field of modern cinema.

[Rusteen Honardoost · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the history of Iranian film, especially when it’s first person accounts of visiting Iran and primary sources like interviews with famous cinematographers and the eponymous Kiarostami. But then the final section is reprinting contemporaneous magazine/newspaper articles and reviews of films. They start to feel repetitive because they’re all clearly written for an audience who has never seen an Iranian film before. Would have also loved a conclusion section that ties the book together.

[Malyaj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Iranian Cinema for more than a decade now, and picked this book up to know more about the process of film-making, the themes, and embedded poetry. This series of essays does a good job of giving background to what the cinema culture is rooted in, and does a fair job at that, adding autheticity through his personal accounts and his own quest to learn about Iranian culture and literature. It would not have been useful if the reader isn't somewhat familiar with some of Iran's art house cinema beforehand. I knew of Kiarostami, Panahi, Majifi, Farhadi, but the book widened my horizon to Mehrjui, Rasoulof, and Ghobadi, and lot of their films to watch.