Shirin

Details:

5/19/16 6PM FREE
(Abbas Kiarostami, 2008, Iran, digital, 92 min.)

Many of Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami’s films have long explored the slippery divide between fiction and reality, documentary and narrative, and Shirin is one his most compelling and subtle works in this vein. On screen, we see more than 100 of Iran’s leading actresses (along with French actress Juliette Binoche), filmed in isolation or small groups and apparently engrossed in watching a film based on a famous medieval Persian poem. All is not what it seems, though: the women are not watching a film, their responses are directed by an off-camera Kiarostami, the film was purportedly shot in his living room, and the film soundtrack we hear is fake, constructed by Kiarostami afterwards. Shirin is a quietly powerful and mesmerizing contemplation on truth and illusion.

This screening is taking place in conjunction with the Face, Body, and Image in Cinema conference, held on May 19-20 and hosted by the Center for Global Culture and Communication (CGCC) at Northwestern University.

Introduced by Northwestern Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in Communication, Hamid Naficy.

Contact The Block Museum of Art for more information: (847) 491-4000 or email us at block-museum@northwestern.edu