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Thank you all for your insightful comments

Thank you all for your insightful comments.

Kiarostami will be making a film with French Star Juliette Binoche apparently in a near future called Copie Conforme aka certified copy.

More here:

//www.imdb.com/title/tt1020773/

Oh yes, the light, but that also seems to me to be a

very Iranian aspect of cinema. No one does it like them. The end of Bezaie's "Mosaferaan" is one of the most majestic uses of light in cinema, and the later Makhmalbaf moved from a sheer darkness to a brilliant light. The light also exposes textures on ordinary surfaces, like buildings, that is unparalleled. Frankly I believe it has to do either with the Mazdaist substratum in the culture itself, or with its propagandizing during the Shah's Persianization campaigns. In either case it's still something very Iranian

Kiarostami once said something to the effectthat he makes the camera and himself diisappear and also uses real time so that the audience can draw their own conclusions without his intervention.

The importance of Kiarostami

is the way he uses the camera and lighting that is the ultimate reality of cinema. His talent in directing makes the camera disappear, and brings the reality of characters and culture across the screen.

In any of his movies, the people, places and thoughts are live and real (neo-realism). Although many people don't find his movies attractive, he has created an style that many pop directors will benefit from it for years to come.

Such artists become international and border-less by their nature.He is a great Iranian artist that has already influenced many Iranian directors.

I am not sure about validity of the following statement that I am going to make, it's only my opinion.  "man push cart"(2005) by Ramin Bahrani is a film from New York that could have been taken in Iran. His movie reminded me of Kia Rostami. The expensive equipments and many cameras can be thrown away, with Mr. Rostami's style you only need one camera and a correct sense of lighting  with a realistic "script", and there you go.

Kiarostami is widely thought to have been the pioneer of

Iranian cinema's ingenious combining of fiction and documentary, which many believe to be a brilliant but essentially Western innovation. In reality this Iranian cinema was well under way under the Shah, Kimiavi's "P Like Pelican" being one of the most extraordinary films I've ever seen and Nabili's "Sealed Soil" being probably the last great film made in Iran before the Revolution--it had to be smuggled out.

What I'm trying to say is that as much as Kiarostami is considered to be a brainchild of the Western filmmaking tradition (Close-up being widely considered by the greatest Western filmmakers, including Goddard, to be one of the best films ever made), Kiarostami actually furthered an IRANIAN film tradition.

And there can be nothing more Iranian than the Earthquake Trilogy. As for Taste of Cherries, this is about yet another Iranian intellectual alienated from his roots, ust like the videographer in "The Wind Will Carry Us" who must be propelled by extraordinary circumstances at the precipice of life and death, his own or someone else's, to find his true Iranian identity.

I really haven't seen any of Kiarostami's more recent work and I don't know when he made that statement but whatever he says Kiarostami's true legacy will be as one of the quintessential IRANIAN filmmakers for IRAN.

If people want to be entertained they have many many options. If people want to be nourished they have Kiarostami and many others to feed the mind and the soul. THe Iranian mind and soul.

Finally all the great filmmakers' films under IRI have received very limited screening and high censorship. It's why Makhmalbaf finally had to film elsewhere...did you ever see "The Silence?" about the little blind boy...in Tajikstan?

Dear Darius

Thank you for sharing this with us. I have a lot of respect for Abbas Kiarostami. I love many of his movies and find his intelligence and simplicity in offering ideas extremely effective.

I would like to say one thing, though. I believe Mr. Kiarostami's saying "I have been accused of making films for foreign audiences" is not just an accusation. It is a direction Mr. Kiarostami has chosen and implemented over the past decade. I remember listening to filmmaker Nader Takmil Homayoun at a presentation in Berkeley. His movie, Iran: une révolution cinématographique, was based around Iranian filmmakers and their struggles for bringing quality cinema to Iranian audiences. During the informal Q/A session afterwards, when someone asked him why he hadn't interviewed Mr. Kiarostami, he said that though Kiarostami has been his friend for years, he had refused to be interviewed and included in Takmil Homayoun's movie, because "this is a movie about Iranian filmmakers who make movies for Iran and Iranians and I am no longer in that circle."

There is no need for gossip on audiences' part or denial on Mr. Kiarostami's part. I believe the kinds of movies Mr. Kiarostami has been making are much more appreciated by western audiences. He hasn't made movies which would appeal to Iranian audiences inside Iran for years. Even his movie "Taste of Cherries" was a bit on the heavy side for less discriminating Iranian audiences who truly look to cinema for its entertainment value in the middle of their hard and sad lives.

Anyhow, I'm glad this fabulous Iranian director feels he needs to renew his bond with his nation. It is a very good sign of good things to come.

Thanks again for sharing Darius Jan.