Shirin is a 2008 film directed by master Iranian filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami. The film is considered by some critics as a notable twist in the artistic career of Kiarostami.

Shirin is made from simple closeup shots of faces as they themselves watch a film. Everything is angled toward a specific end: all the people inspected closely are women, and the film they are watching is the 800-year-old Persian love story of Khosrow and Shirin, a semi-mythic Persian romance of female self-sacrifice.^[1][2] The film depicts the audience's emotional involvement with the story. The story is skillfully read between the tragic and kitsch by a cast of narrators led by Manoucher Esmaieli and is accompanied by a historical "film score" by Morteza Hananeh and Hossein Dehlavi.^[3]

The film's production is replete with curious anecdotes. According to some reports, the women were filmed individually in Kiarostami's living room, with the director asking them to cast their gaze at a mere series of dots above the camera. The director has also stated that, during the filming process, he had no idea what film they were watching, and settled on the Khosrow and Shirin myth only after shooting had concluded.^[4] The brief appearance of Juliet Binoche in the film came as the result of her role in another Kiarostami project.

It was first screened at the 65th Venice International Film Festival.^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of Iranian films

[edit] External links

• Iranian film "Shirin" a rewarding challenge (Reuters, 2008)
• IMDb entry

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