ABBAS KIAROSTAMI

Born in Teheran, Iran, after winning a painting award at the age of eighteen, he graduated from the University of Fine Arts in his city and before embarking on a career as a director, worked as a graphic designer in advertising and illustration of children's books. The latter will in fact become almost constant protagonists of many of his films and the delicacy and respect used by Kiarostami in directing them, will become almost his trademark.
In the mid-sixties, more than 150 commercials for state television turned from an advertising graphic designer. Despite the various vicissitudes experienced by his country, including the '79 revolution, he still decides to stay in Iran and, after over thirty, decides to undertake a film career. He reworked and modified many of his films according to the new rules of censorship of the Khomeini regime; his beginnings, and more generally his entire production, mostly concern short films inspired by the Italian Neorealist cinema.
His first feature film is entitled The Traveler, shot in 1974, where the protagonist, a young teenager, tries in every way to get a ticket to see the national team match in Tehran at the stadium. A constant, in his career will always be the direction of documentaries, often with an educational background, in fact in the eighties will turn many short films with educational background.