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Taste of Cherry

Taste of Cherry

1997
Drama
1h 35m
Middle-aged Mr.Badii is planning to commit suicide and desperately seeks anyone to assist him - he has already dug out the grave in the mountains, but the assistant will have to bury him when he will do the deed. (IMDb)
Your probable score
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Taste of Cherry

1997
Drama
1h 35m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 69.03% from 1744 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(1744)
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Compact view
Rated 15 Jun 2015
88
95th
So bare and simple that for a long time I thought "what's the big deal here?" but by the end it had inconspicuously gathered such an emotional charge I was completely spellbound. Almost ridiculous how such power is built with quiet and seemingly pointless images & slow narrative. It's a lyrical & contemplative look at the world for the last & therefore the first time. I found the ending hugely affecting & personal. Probably doesn't work for a number of people.
Rated 25 Aug 2018
95
98th
"I got out amongst the drift-wood and then laid down in the bottom of the canoe and let her float. I laid there and had a good rest and a smoke out of my pipe, looking away into the sky, not a cloud in it. The sky looks ever so deep when you lay down on your back in the moonshine; I never knowed it before." ~Huckleberry Finn
Rated 06 Mar 2008
88
87th
Kiarostami makes every scene in this film a visual wonder, and creates extremely memorable characters. This film is really hard to get into, It took me three viewings to appreciate it. One thing I really liked about the film was the editing, everything seemed real because it wasn't rushed at all, and it felt like one scene didn't cut to the next, it all just seemed very fluid and extremely well done. From beginning to bizzare end, A Taste of Cherry is definitely worth a look.
Rated 28 Apr 2008
90
91st
A vivid and insistent examination of the isolated soul in the chaos of modern society. Kiarostami is patient, attentive and tender when he explore the characters' facial expressions and the silence that occur in both moments of embarrassment and recognition (the latter evoking existential insight/contemplation while the former increase the authenticity of the situations). Deeply heartfelt and intensely fascinating.
Rated 25 Dec 2014
89
97th
A taste of cinema...
Rated 20 Jan 2017
9
90th
The more I delve into Kiarostami's work, the more I'm reminded of cinema's potential to bend its self-imposed rules so as to engage the viewer into a contemplative state where reality and fiction coalesce seamlessly into a harmonious, interdependent whole. And as much as the film's first half was a chore to sit through, I was decidedly won over by its sincere and affecting examination of the sadness and short-lived beauty of human existence. A great film from a truly great filmmaker.
Rated 26 May 2017
58
38th
Fuck yeah I'll bury a dude for 200K
Rated 27 Feb 2007
90
97th
The dialogue in Kiarostami movies is dry and direct in a very unusual way.
Rated 11 Jul 2007
17
94th
An interesting and evocative exploration of depression and suicide. Badii's despair is palpable, the direction is minimalistic and bleak, and the whole film has atmosphere out the wazoo. Top stuff.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
74
50th
I liked the concept, but the execution of it didn't really work. It's a half hour script (45 minutes at the most) bloated to fill an hour and a half.
Rated 29 Apr 2009
4
93rd
Love the patience of this movie, and the many tender, quiet moments. At the end it reveals itself as a celebration of life, and it all left me in awe really.
Rated 21 Dec 2009
92
89th
Strange, haunting film about suicide and loneliness.
Rated 13 Oct 2010
90
88th
14 ekim 10, yonetmenin izledigim ikinci filmi & kirostami'nin sinema dilini cok seviyorum. bu film hakkinda soylenecek pek bir sey yok gibi.. yalin, derin ve etkili. olmasi gerektigi gibi.
Rated 22 Mar 2013
85
80th
So well rounded addressing Badii's fear without ever bringing it up too obviously, looking at people's reactions and their attempts to stop him, capturing his desperation yet ever so subtly. The ending of the story is stunningly handled and haunting, though unfortunately the film undoes its power with an epilogue scene that breaks the fourth wall and in doing so undermines the emotional struggle Badii went through.
Rated 31 May 2016
84
67th
Follows one Mr. Badii (Homayon Ershadi) as he tries to recruit someone to bury him after his suicide, conversing in turn with a young soldier, a Quranic seminarist, and an aged taxidermist who shares his own story of suicide averted. Thoughtful meditation on life and human connection, enigmatic by design but nonetheless evocative and moving, though the scenes with the seminarist and the fourth-wall breaking coda don't quite come off, and it dips a bit into conventional storytelling near the end.
Rated 05 Jul 2016
85
92nd
Kiarostami' suicide road movie never feels heavy at all. Instead, it's almost a contemplative, optimistic work about a man willing to die -- and to find someone who can bury him afterwards. It's the kind of film in which every shot counts, a masterful film about humanity in its purest, most fundamental aspects (memory, life, death, courage, fear), a narrative about dirt and skin, a man willing to reconnect with dust -- and it's not even one of the auteur's finest!
Rated 13 Oct 2016
50
44th
Despite being a fan of Kiarostami as well as all the deliberation involved in Iranian New Wave films, I have to agree with Ebert that the "style here is an affectation". It's easy to romanticize life by giving lectures and suggesting that a taste of cherry is a reason to choose life over death when viewers don't know anything about the main character, his life,or his existential anguish. This film does incorporate a minimalist approach but not one that contributes to substance or deeper meaning.
Rated 28 Feb 2017
75
75th
kiarostami has a sense of rhythm in his movies that few others master. the movie unfolds slowly and just when it's about to lose pace there's a slight turn in its direction. it holds up for the majority of the movie, but eventually one starts wondering how it will end. when the end finally comes, its purpose flies right above my head and understanding. working in a psychiatric ward myself, I found the view on depression and suicide to be simplistic at best.
Rated 15 May 2019
5
73rd
fun to revisit my first ever middle eastern film. in his own way kiarostami collapses the dichotomy of life and death just as thoroughly as someone like joe, only he goes further in analogising this with the relationship between cinema and reality (the film is perhaps intended as the 'cherry' from which one emerges reborn). regardless of its 'meaning', which is laid on too thick by certain dialogues, there's no denying the existential gravity when it's just a face, a car and a landscape.
Rated 26 Jun 2019
80
92nd
Kiarostami's death was a great loss to cinema, and TOC is yet another example of his deceptively simple, seemingly effortless style where minimalism isn't an end but a means to explore the complexity of the human condition. It is more direct and straight forward than some of his other films, but the scope has been reduced rather than narrowed, and the focus on a man's unusual practical dilemma gains real force through carefully crafted scenes of repetition and difference.
Rated 17 Jul 2020
76
41st
This just goes to show you that film can be just as boring as the dryest of history books. So mired in New Wave that it's hard to separate out the good from the eye-rollingly pretentious. Yes, there are aspects of this movie that are exquisitely done, but it stretches the patience of anyone. And this is no Kubrick or Tarkovsky, so its sour-pussed minimalism and repetitive dialog really gnaw at the watchable parts. A film made exclusively for tormenting film studies undergrads.
Rated 19 Mar 2022
72
85th
yahu güzel film de baştan sona filmin motivasyonu kafamda oturmadı. mezarlıktan iğrenip ağacın altında huzur bulmak istiyor desem olmaz. tam tersine yerinden çıkarıp otopsi bile yaparlar, bir de adam kayıp olacak... dini sebeplerle hemen defnedilmek istiyor desem intihar edecek adam bu kadar dine bağlı mı olur? son ihtimal ise intihar eden kişilere iran'da ceza mı var ahahahah bu da çok saçma oldu. yani hiçbir şekilde olmuyor ya
Rated 06 Aug 2022
91
78th
Even with what Heidegger said about the absolute own-ness of death and dying, there's still a dimension of human connection that can make a death and dying a good one, in the knowledge that life is ultimately tragic beyond any religious discipline. The film has a unique fable-like character.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
98
97th
Meditation of life ..
Rated 02 Mar 2008
74
58th
# 530
Rated 14 Apr 2008
50
30th
Maybe the biggest fog or maybe the great view...me don't know..
Rated 11 Jun 2008
60
55th
An interesting film marked with moments of pure beauty and others where you're wondering why any of it is happening. Much like life, I suppose. Overall, it's pretty engaging but not totally satisfying. Plus, I'm not sure what the epilogue's purpose is.
Rated 19 Dec 2008
69
38th
611
Rated 07 Mar 2009
85
95th
Staggeringly great writing is when the text doesn't just combine true-to-life realism with insight such that every word is valuable and affecting, as if these were disparate elements, but makes it so that they are one and the same. A Taste of Cherry is one such masterful text.
Rated 02 Aug 2009
85
81st
Slow, but it needs to be to get at that sense of desperation and hopelessness in the main character. It makes those small bright spots all the more meaningful.
Rated 10 Sep 2009
84
84th
Created with a deliberately slow pace, it required patience and calmness to watch it. I was enchanted.
Rated 15 Jan 2010
68
36th
643
Rated 22 Jul 2010
78
41st
Mr.Badii is planning to commit suicide and desperately seeks anyone to assist him.
Rated 01 Jan 2011
81
55th
Bleak and sensitive by turns, this is a deceptively tender portrait of human nature.
Rated 17 Feb 2011
90
90th
With patience, this turned into a thoughtful meditation on life and death. The epilogue will divide people, but it made sense to me after thinking about it; the original was accidental destroyed according to the documentary 10 On Ten, which makes the one on the film even more fitting in its potential meaning.
Rated 02 May 2011
40
7th
I couldn't connect with the character because of how ultimately irrational the plot is. If he's already in the position to kill himself, why does it matter what happens to the body? Why does he seek anybody's help to begin with? As for everything else, it's meandering and doesn't offer anything new. I didn't like it.
Rated 23 Jun 2011
80
84th
I didn't think it was hard to get into, really, found it quite engaging all the way. Like Close-Up, this film has a deeply humanist quality to it that is very appealing. I like the deliberate style as well and Ershadi is phenomenal. The young military man was also very memorable, but then all the people he came in contact with were great. In short, a lot to like. Apart from the ending. Haven't fully digested it yet, but instinctively was very skeptical of the fact that he went _there_.
Rated 29 Jul 2011
75
83rd
Aesthetically, it's absolutely striking. The story itself is stretched a little thin, but it resolves itself rather spectacularly. Count me as one who loved the coda.
Rated 01 Dec 2011
66
32nd
#674
Rated 05 May 2012
70
58th
Dude picks up a guy that kinda looks like Manny Pacquiao. It'd be funny if he picked up Dirk Diggler.
Rated 10 Sep 2012
65
69th
Lots to dislike here. The ending is bullshit of course, but in their defense the original was destroyed. The visuals are definitely subpar, but that isn't what Kiarostami is about. The acting is bad, story itself is kinda weird (why?) The only reason I therefore didn't dislike or even hate this, is AK has this kind of ridiculous touch where he can take all of these elements and somehow turn them human. Probably the only effective realist I've ever watched handle fiction.
Rated 12 Oct 2012
70
53rd
I don't know... It's a good film, but a masterpiece? PSI of 94? I just don't quite get it.
Rated 14 Aug 2013
93
96th
Although it's the story that compelled me to watch this film, it's best to see this with as little knowledge of it as possible -- there's an underlying tension in the masterfully paced way in which the story is delivered upon its viewer. What there is to know is that this man (who exists more outside the film than in it) has the values of his proposition challenged by three men, one younger, one his age, and one older. The ending coda had me initially disappointed, but now I like it.
Rated 09 Oct 2013
83
75th
82.500
Rated 24 Dec 2013
61
9th
this film's biggest problem was that it wasn't developed much beyond a tagline. maybe the filmmaker knew a lot about the character that he didn't reveal, but to me it looked lazy and pretentious enough to mask its laziness as profundity. the script felt very amateur, and for all its pretence of artsy-ness the film resorted to a cheap cliffhanger to force emotion out of its audience. art and entertainment don't have to be mutually exclusive - and true art never is.
Rated 06 Jan 2014
7
92nd
a man is searching for an assistant in suicide. there is a sort of logical progression in the conversations, from the refusals to the boy to the seminarist to the old man. the final comparison between that old man's own story and the thunderstorm is very poignant. but it should have ended there. i didn't like the final 3 minutes at all, even though the attempt at ironically contrasting the sadness of the dead with the joy of the alive - who are making a film about the dead - is well-meaning.
Rated 06 Feb 2014
80
80th
Graceful in its simplicity, manages to touch on its subject from various angles without becoming bloated or unfocused. Some great camera work coupled with desolate but optimistic scenery
Rated 10 Nov 2014
90
89th
Just worked for me, can't really articulate why. I just thought it was really lovely.
Rated 17 Nov 2014
80
63rd
Sett sterkere av Kiarostami, men denne er like fullt en god film. En fyr kjører rundt og prøver å få hjelp av fremmede til å bli gravlagt etter et planlagt selvmordsforsøk. Hovedsaklig en dialogbasert film med en del unike vinklinger med tanke på at filmen er laget i et land der selvmordet blir sett på som en av de største syndene.
Rated 04 Jun 2015
85
59th
Viewed June 3, 2015.
Rated 29 Aug 2015
80
82nd
rewatch
Rated 24 May 2016
65
8th
(...) Wäre es aber nicht hilfreich, ihn etwas besser zu kennen? Wissen wir überhaupt etwas von ihm? Kiarostami unternimmt keinen Versuch, uns diesen Mann näher zu bringen. Er lässt ihn nur bedeutungsschwanger in die Ferne blicken. Und ist es notwendig, dass wir Kiarostamis Kamerateam manchmal im Bild sehen? Soll uns das bewusst machen, dass eben alles nur ein Film ist?(...) (Dazu gibts unsere Film List "Arthaus Iran" auf cinegeek.de
Rated 01 Sep 2016
84
76th
beautiful quotes of the old man which made me notice the little things which bring giant pleasures, watching sunrise, taste of toot, nature...
Rated 18 Nov 2016
100
92nd
Taste of cherry successfully giving us hope without romanticising it.
Rated 10 Jun 2017
85
87th
A very real and haunting look at one man's desire to commit suicide.
Rated 28 Sep 2017
7
50th
has some really great moments but the ending was a total copout
Rated 18 Mar 2018
80
73rd
A naked and minimalist examination of life and its small treasures. Kiarostami's film, as per usual, takes patience and the willingness to enjoy the mundane.
Rated 02 Mar 2019
97
97th
''Bir kirazın tadından vazgeçecek misin?''
Rated 24 Apr 2020
90
91st
The restoration makes it better. A lot of the driving force of this film is its visuals, so when they're a soapy purple and faded orange it's dull as tar, but when the contrasted blacks and the visuals are more striking it draws you in more.
Rated 23 Jun 2020
97
96th
Em honra dos 80 anos que Kiarostami faria hoje. Não tenho nem o que falar, é isso aí mesmo, obra-prima. Box Obras-primas do Cinema Abba Kiarostami.
Rated 25 Jul 2020
79
81st
İntihar, araba, diyalog, mezar, toprak, kürt, afgan, türk, şantiye, ikilem (Ölmek isteyen bir adam intihar ettikten sonra üstüne toprak atacak birini aramaktadır. SPOILER önce karşısına asker bir kürt genci çıkar. Sonra medresede okuyan bir Afgan genci ve en sonda tahnitçilik yapan bir Türk ihtiyar çıkar. GÜZEL FİLM sonunda ikilemde bırakıyor.
Rated 02 Nov 2020
90
84th
This is a beautiful movie. The photography is beautiful, the dialogs are beautiful. What else do you want?
Rated 23 Feb 2021
20
7th
As a short film it would have worked better, but as a feature length film it's a slog and uninteresting. Why should I give a shit about the main character when we know pretty much nothing about him? We find out more about his passengers than him. Why is 95% of this movie just a guy driving around in circles in his car with the same routes and camera shots over and over again? It's just boring and repetitive. What's up with the ending? I agree with Roger Ebert this was a load of rubbish.
Rated 26 Apr 2021
0
0th
This film not only bothred me while I watched it, but also made me sick for a whole month every time I remembered it.
Rated 04 May 2021
60
54th
Knowing what Kiarostami is capable of, for example the 'Koker Trilogy' and 'Close Up' are masterpieces, this was a let down for me (much like 'Certified Copy' leaves me unsatisfied). While the film constitutes an interesting exploration of our (that is humans) need to seek help from each other - indeed Kiarostami makes evident that to seek help is to be human - it fails in terms of saying anything profound about death, which seems to be Kiarostami's main aim here.
Rated 03 Nov 2021
69
61st
Contemplation on meaning of life and search for it during a suicidal moments of the main character. Ending is dubious and unnecessary.
Rated 16 Jan 2022
2
5th
zor izledim.
Rated 13 Mar 2022
75
43rd
09.18 Çiftlik
Rated 29 Mar 2022
80
71st
it's precisely worth a try but has more optimism than needed
Rated 09 Oct 2022
74
68th
Starts very slowly but the old man's speech moved me and makes the viewing worth it.
Rated 06 Nov 2022
70
41st
Slow but often poignant mediation of life and death with a fine performance by Homayoun Ershadi. Though it's fairly minimalist, I think it's too dry at times. I think the ending is a bit of a cop out, and while I know not telling us anything much about the main character or his motivations is a conscious choice, I'm not sure it adds to the movie. It's more of a feeling film than anything, and it accomplishes that fairly well.
Rated 08 Feb 2023
98
95th
Absolute masterpiece from Kiarostami. Incredible representation of the state of being suicidal and humanity. He achieves this in the purest, simplest way without rushing and the movie actually flows impeccably because of that. Love this style. Phenomenal stuff.
Rated 12 Feb 2023
7
54th
An allegorical road trip to the depths of despair. Meditative in its pacing and quietly sublime in its conclusion.
Rated 09 Sep 2023
95
95th
It's like I've been waiting for someone to make a movie like this and Kiarostami nailed it. I could almost feel the main character at every point. I loved his performance and the look in his eyes...
Rated 19 Feb 2024
75
76th
Pleasant enough to watch, and it's nice to start with nothing and watch the situation unfold as it does here.

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