(a) Studiocanal
Open Space – curated by Zauri Matikashvili and Merle Radtke
A man travels along bumpy roads, driven by a sinister plan: he is searching for a stranger who, in return for payment, will do him one last favour and close his grave once he has taken his own life.
Badii gives three men a lift in his car: a Kurdish soldier who runs away from him when he tells him about his work; an Afghan seminarian who refuses to help him on religious grounds; and the Azerbaijani taxidermist Bagheri, who tries to dissuade him from his plan – he recounts how he abandoned his own suicide attempt after eating a mulberry – but who ultimately agrees to help him because he needs the money for his sick child.
The film had its world premiere in May 1997 at the Cannes International Film Festival, where, following last-minute efforts by French and other Iranian filmmakers and due to censorship issues in its country of origin, it was screened in the competition section. The jury awarded the film the Palme d’Or.
“Kiarostami has created a film of the utmost simplicity and directness, whose imagery remains as sparse as it is bleak, yet manages to evoke that ‘flavour’ of life which makes it worth living and striving for. Unlike in his earlier works, this time the focus is less on the complex interweaving of fiction and documentary. Rather, the cinematic ‘narrative’ serves to formulate a thesis that the viewer is meant to reflect upon and decide for themselves. Without a willingness to engage intellectually, the film remains hermetic and alienating, and scarcely develops the momentum it possesses within itself.” filmdienst
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