''Where Is the Friend's House?'' (, ''Khane-ye dust kojast''), also known as ''Where Is the Friend's Home?'', is a 1987 Iranian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of over forty films, including s ...

. The plot depicts a conscientious schoolboy's attempt to return his friend's school notebook to his home in a neighboring village, to prevent the friend from being expelled if he fails to hand it in the next day. The film, whose title derives from a poem by

Sohrab Sepehri Sohrab Sepehri ( 7 October 1928 – 21 April 1980; ) was a notable Iranian poet and painter. He is considered to be one of the five most famous Iranian poets who have practiced modern poetry alongside Nima Youshij, Ahmad Shamlou, Mehdi Akhav ...

, is the first installment in Kiarostami's ''Koker'' trilogy, followed by '' And Life Goes On'' and ''

Through the Olive Trees ''Through the Olive Trees'' () is a 1994 Iranian drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. The final part of Kiarostami's Koker trilogy, the plot, set in earthquake-ravaged Northern Iran, revolves a ...

'', all of which take place in

Koker, Iran Koker () is a small mud-brick village in Rudbar County, Gilan province, Iran. In the early 1990s the well-known Koker trilogy of films, directed by Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film directo ...

Plot

Ahmad, a grade schooler, watches as his teacher berates a fellow student, Mohammad Reza, for repeatedly failing to complete the homework in his notebook, threatening expulsion on the next offense. When Ahmad returns home, he realizes he has accidentally taken Reza's notebook. Against his mother's orders, he sets out in search for Reza's house, encountering false leads, dead ends, and distractions as he attempts to enlist adults in his search, most of whom ignore him or cannot answer his questions. When night falls and he has been unable to find Reza's house, Ahmad goes home and does the homework in the notebook. The next day, the homework is deemed excellent by the teacher.

Cast

* Babak Ahmadpour as Ahmad Ahmadpour * Ahmed Ahmadpour as Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh * Khodabaksh Defai as the Teacher * Iran Outari as Mother * Ayat Ansari as Father * Sedigheh Tohidi as the Persian Neighbour * Payman Moafi as Ali, a neighbour * Teba Soleimani as the Husband * Aziz Babai as the Waiter * Nader Gholami as the Property Owner * Ali Jamali as Grandfather's Friend * Akbar Moradi as the Old Man from Azerbaijan * Mohammad Reza Parvaneh as the Man Mistaken for Ali * Farahanka Brothers as the Young Boy * Maria Chdjari as the Girl who Stutters * Hamdollah Askarpour as the Old Man * Kadiret Kaoiyenpour as the Religious Old Man * Hajar Farazpour as the Apple Seller * Mohammad Hossein Rouhi as the Carpenter * Rafia Difai as Grandfather * Agakhan Karadach Khani as the Street Vendor

Commendations

''Where Is the Friend's House?'' was Kiarostami's first film to gain major international attention. It won the Bronze Leopard at the 1989

Locarno Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

, and the Golden Plate at the

Fajr Film Festival Iran's annual Fajr International Film Festival (), or Fajr Film Festival (little: FIFF; ), has been held every February in Tehran since 1983. The festival is supervised by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (Iran), Ministry of Culture ...

. The film is on the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

's list of 50 films to see by age 15.

Legacy

Iranian filmmaker

Bahman Ghobadi Bahman Ghobadi (; ; born February 1, 1969) is an Kurds in Iran, Iranian Kurdish film director, producer and writer. He belongs to the "Iranian New Wave, new wave" of Iranian cinema. Biography He was born in Baneh, a Kurds, Kurdish city in Iran ...

said that "I always have this film in mind because of the director's profound perspective on filmmaking and its strange and distinct structure". The Japanese filmmaker

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

cited ''Where Is the Friend's House?'' as one of his favorite films.

Jonathan Rosenbaum Jonathan Rosenbaum (born February 27, 1943) is an American film critic and author. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for '' The Chicago Reader'' from 1987 to 2008. He has published and edited numerous books about cinema and has contributed to ...

in 1998 called Kiarostami the greatest living filmmaker and called the film (along with ''

'' and '' And Life Goes On'') "sustained meditations on singular landscapes and the way ordinary people live in them; obsessional quests that take on the contours of parables; concentrated inquiries that raise more questions than they answer; and comic as well as cosmic poems about dealing with personal and impersonal disaster. They're about making discoveries and cherishing what's in the world—including things that we can't understand". In 2016, shortly after Kiarostami's death,

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; né Stipetić; born 5 September 1942) is a German filmmaker, actor, opera director, and author. Regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema, his films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with unusu ...

called him "one of the all-time most wonderful filmmakers" and cited the film as one of his best.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Where Is the Friend's House? 1987 films 1987 drama films 1987 independent films Iranian drama films Iranian independent films 1980s Persian-language films Films about children Films directed by Abbas Kiarostami Films set in Iran Films whose director won the Best Directing Crystal Simorgh