*On a snowy morning/I run out/hatless and coatless/as happy as a child--a brief poem by Abbas Kiarostami.

*I believe the films of Kiarostami are extraordinary--Akira Kurosawa.

Every year, the International Film Festival of India pays a special tribute to film-makers who have moved on to their heavenly abodes. One such genius was Abbas Kiarostami, the Iranian legend, who passed away on July 4 this year, aged 76, in Paris, where he had been living for many years. In an eventful and rewarding career, he directed/wrote some 40 features and shorts.

Born in Tehran in 1940, into a large family, Abbas Kiarostami was a student of fine art. Education was free in Iran, and had it not been so, his siblings would not have been all able to pursue higher studies. In 1969, he created the cinema department at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where the Iranian New Wave was born. We in India did not see much of it, as international film festivals in India were not so frequent then, or varied in content, as they became after 1976.

It was there that he produced most of his films until 1992, including his first short, The Bread and Alley (1970), and his first feature The Traveller (1974). His early foray, The Report (1977), was banned, following the cultural revolution in Iran. Like many a master, he too is known for a trilogy, the Koker films, comprising: Where is the Friend’s Home? (1987, which was India’s real awakening to the magic of Kiarostami), Life and Nothing More… (1992), and Through the Olive Trees (1994). Koker is the location in Iran that they are all set in. The highest level of pan-continental recognition came with Taste of Cherry, which won the Golden Palm at the Festival de Cannes. Accolades grew with The Wind Will Carry Us bagging the jury prize at Venice in 1999.

He returned to Cannes in competition, with Ten (2002), Certified Copy (2010) – for which French actress Juliette Binoche won the best actress glory, and Like Someone in Love (2012).

Kiarostami’s photography and video installations, including the acclaimed Trees Without Leaves, are exhibited all over the world, and his collections of poems have been translated into a many languages. He directed his first play, Tazieh, in 2003. Ta'ziyeh (or Ta'ziyé, or Ta'ziyah) is a Shia passion play, and has over 200 separate texts in the current repertoire, but all focus on one event: the murder of Imam Hussein, son of Khalifa+Imam Ali, and grandson of the prophet Mohammed, in 680AD, under the orders of tyrant king Yazeed. It is also performed in many parts of India during the month of Moharram. It was staged at the Teatro di Roma/Teatro India, a former soap factory in the crumbling industrial wastelands that line the Tiber, south of Ponte Testaccio. The Teatro India was born in 1999, to offer a second location at the Teatro di Roma, after the historic Teatro Argentina. Artistic Director of the Teatro Argentina, the actor and director Mario Martine, personally chose the name of the new building: India.

Some other honours conferred upon Kiarostami:

The Prix Roberto Rossellini (named after the Italian great), at the Cannes Film Festival (1992)

UNESCO’s Fellini (who can forget Frederico Fellini, also from Italy) Gold Medal (1997)

The Konrad Wolf (East German film director and long-standing President of the East German Akademie der Künst) Preis, of the Academy of the Arts, Berlin (2003).

These seven films of Abbas Kiarostami were chosen for at IFFI:

Like Someone in Love, 2012, France-Japan

In Tokyo, an elderly man and a student/escort girl take on different roles over the course of their unusual relationship. The young sex worker develops an unexpected connection with the widower, over a period of two days.

#Competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

#Abbas Kiarostami’s final feature film.

Shirin, 2008

114 famous Iranian theatre and cinema actresses, and a French star (Juliette Binoche) are mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.

#First screened at the 65th Venice International Film Festival.

“The story (of Shirin) was not important to me. I mean, I had not pinned my hopes on the story. I just thought they were watching a melodrama film. But I was uncertain about which film. During the course of production, I came across things which I found congenial.

Nezami—who lived almost eight centuries ago—was not only able to make drama. When it came to dramatic features, his works are believed to be as good as Shakespeare’s--but also, he had a perfect understanding of women. The image he created of women was very positive; he portrayed women as being capable and self-reliant. Such personalities are rarely seen even today.

Although Shirin maintains all the feminine, intricate features of women, it proves quite strong. Nezami has created a great picture of a love triangle for us. A triangle one side of which features a king, and another an architect and mathematician, a statue maker, or an able-bodied person capable of conveying confidence to women. I believe they were both ideal for women.”

Take Me Home, 2016, B&W, Short

Abbas Kiarostami takes his camera to south of Italy, and shows us a beautiful and playful video, of alleys and stairs there.

#Kiarostami’s final work.

Taste of Cherry, 1997

A dark drama, about a desperate man on the verge of suicide, who seeks someone willing to bury him, discreetly.

Ten, 2002, Docu-drama/Docu-fiction

Ten different sequences examine the emotional lives of women at significant junctures, including the main protagonist’s.

#Nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

The Wind Will Carry Us, 1999

A trio of journalists from the city arrive in a little village, with a very unusual mission. They pretend to be communications engineers, but they are awaiting the death of woman who is over 100. Among other things, the film explores cultural differences between a man from the city and from a village.

#Nominated for the Golden Lion at the 1999 Venice Film Festival.

#Won the Grand Special Jury Prize (Silver Lion), the FIPRESCI Prize

#Won the CinemAvvenire at the 1999 Venice Film Festival.

Through The Olive Trees, 1994

The movie is set in earthquake-ravaged Northern Iran, and explores the relationship between the movie director, and the actors. The local actors play a couple who got married right after the earthquake. In reality, the actor is trying to persuade the actress that they should get married.

#Nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.

Besides these seven films being screened at IFFI Goa 2016, a documentary on Abbas Kiarostami, was screened under the category, ‘Documenting the Legends.’ The documentary is titled ‘76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Abbas Kiarostami’, sharing 76 minutes and 15 seconds of undiscovered moments of Abbas Kiarostami’s life and work, in commemoration of his 76 years and 15 days of creative journey. The shots of this documentary are selected out of hundreds of hours of footage, filmed during 25 years of friendship, inside and outside Iran, on various occasions: film festivals, photo exhibitions, photography sessions, artistic events, workshops and some unique moments of his daily life. Seifollah Samadian, his friend and long-time collaborator, is the maker. Samadian, who did the cinematography on ABC Africa, organises Iran’s annual photography festival.