Taste of Cherry

1997 1h 39m FA

🙌

7.7

BANGER

★7.7TMDB · 741

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Homayoun Ershadi
Mr. Badii
Abdolrahman Bagheri
Mr. Bagheri
Safar Ali Moradi
Soldier
Mir Hossein Noori
Seminarian
Elham Imani
Photographer
Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari
Worker
Ahmad Ansari
Self

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Writers: Abbas Kiarostami
Languages: Persian
Countries: Iran, France

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 9% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

29 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Iran, France.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami, shot by Homayun Payvar. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Abbas Kiarostami shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Homayoun Ershadi and Abdolrahman Bagheri and Safar Ali Moradi carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Abbas Kiarostami directs. Homayun Payvar behind the camera. Abbas Kiarostami cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Iran, France. Dialogue in Persian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.1M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Earned back only 9% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
329 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4International production across 2 countries: Iran, France.
5Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
6Directed by Abbas Kiarostami, shot by Homayun Payvar. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Editor Abbas Kiarostami shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Homayoun Ershadi and Abdolrahman Bagheri and Safar Ali Moradi carry the top of the cast.
9IMDB entry: tt0120265 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 21 themes, including "depression", "suicide", "life and death", "muslim".

The technical file

Cinematography: Homayun Payvar
Editing: Abbas Kiarostami
Runtime: 99 min · 1h 39m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $120,000
Box office: $10,923
Return: 9% of budget
Original language: FA
IMDB: Taste of Cherry (1997)

Awards

Palme d'Or

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Abbas Kiarostami

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CRCulver2018-08-14
★ 5/10
In Abbas Kiarostami's 1997 film Ta'm-e gilas (Taste of Cherry) one Mr. Badi, a man about whom viewers learn virtually nothing, drives around Tehran looking for someone to do him a favour: that night, he will kill himself in a quarry outside the city, and he wants someone to cast dirt over his body the next morning. The first half of the film is essentially about Mr. Badi's difficulties finding someone to carry out this small task, in spite of the substantial amount of money he's offering. He is initially mistaken as a homosexual cruising for sex, a misunderstanding that Kiarostami even ribaldly encourages through suggestive dialogue. A seminary student refuses to help him because suicide is a sin. I must say that I was very disappointed by these 40 minutes plus. Shooting so much of the film inside the car as Mr. Badi drives around is a waste of the possibilities of cinema. Furthermore, there is no real rapport between Mr. Badi and the various actors, as it was originally Kiarostami sitting in the passenger seat, and the dialogue of the men Mr. Badi picks up was only dubbed in later. The film does largely rely on amateur actors, as is common in Iranian productions from this era. Mr. Badi is played by the architect Homayoun Ershadi, and though Ershadi eventually established a film career, this was his first role. The film does become stronger in the second half, when Kiarostami starts to move from the dusty and barren quarry to more lively scenery of inhabited Tehran, a clear metaphor for the joy and colour of life that Mr. Badi would be giving up if he went through with his plans. The film starts to be thought-provoking instead of merely awkward, and as a glance at discussion forums will show, the film does offer enough to keep cinephiles talking about it. Unfortunately, the ending that Kiarostami chose for the film (which I won't spoil here) feels to me like a cop-out, not to mention something that is already an old auteur trope by now. If you like the Iranian Second Wave, then you'll probably find it worthwhile to see Ta'm-e gilas at least once. However, in spite of its winning of the Palme d'Or, I do not feel this is an especially great film.

Production companies