Taste of Cherry

Taste of Cherry (, Ta’m-e gīlās...) is a 1997 Iranian minimalist drama film written, produced, edited and directed by Abbas Kiarostami, and starring Homayoun Ershadi as a middle-aged Tehran man, who drives through a city suburb, in search of someone willing to carry out the task of burying him after he commits suicide. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, which it shared with The Eel. Plot summary Mr. Badii, a middle-aged man, drives through Tehran looking for someone to do a job for him, for which he offers a large amount of money. During his drives with prospective candidates, Badii reveals that he plans to kill himself and has already dug the grave. He tells the people he is soliciting to go to the spot he has chosen the next morning, and either help him up, if he has chosen to live, or to bury him, if he has chosen to die. He does not discuss why he wants to commit suicide. His first recruit is a young, shy Kurdish soldier, who refuses to do the job and flees from Badii's car. His second recruit is an Afghan seminarist, who also declines because he has religious objections to suicide. The third is Mr. Bagheri, an Azeri taxidermist. He is willing to help Badii because he needs the money for his sick child. He tries to convince Badii not to commit suicide, and reveals that he too wanted to commit suicide in 1960 but chose to live when, after failing his attempt, he tasted mulberries which dropped from a tree, and reveals that he then went home with the mulberries, and gave it to his wife, which she enjoyed. He continues to discuss what he perceives to be the beauty of life, including sunrises and the moon and stars. Bagheri promises to throw dirt on Badii if he finds him dead in the morning. Badii drops him back at his workplace, but suddenly runs back to meet him, requesting that Bagheri confirm if he's actually dead by throwing some stones at him and jolting him awake, in case he is asleep. That night, Badii lies in his grave while a thunderstorm begins. After a long blackout, the film ends by breaking the fourth wall with camcorder footage of Kiarostami and the film crew filming Taste of Cherry, leaving Badii's choice unknown.