“24 Frames” at Vancouver International Film Festival

“The late master Abbas Kiarostami’s last film contains 24 wordless, four-and-a-half-minute segments, each inhabiting a fixed frame. Each fixed frame contains a photograph from Kiarostami’s other life as an acclaimed photographer—landscapes and seashores, animals (a seagull and a deer, crows, ducks and lions among them) and even a digitized reproduction of Bruegel’s The Hunters in the Snow—that magically comes to life. In Kiarostami’s words, he was trying to capture what he imagined “might have taken place before or after each image.” The result is a haunting summation of the master’s life’s work that will have you seeing the world through new eyes.

“A mesmeric glimpse into Kiarostami’s mysterious mind… The Iranian director has produced a posthumous marvel… 24 Frames was conceived as Kiarostami’s response to the paintings and photographs that inspired him, prompted by the desire to hold the frame steady so as to watch each image come to life, each drama play on. Except this project doesn’t feel like an homage or even an act of curation. It’s something richer and stranger than that—almost as if, in the moment of death, the man’s unconscious has somehow poured out and been caught in a bottle… Gorgeous and enigmatic… Watching it is akin to opening a series of nesting dolls, or leafing through a book of dreams.”—Xan Brooks, Guardian”

Fri. Sep 29, 3:15 pm, Vancity
Wed. Oct 4, 9:00 pm, Cinematheque