Taste of Cherry (1997)
Movie · 1997 · Drama · 1h 39m · FA
Curator score: 9.4/10 (243.6K ratings)
Overview
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.
Ratings
- Curator score: 9.4/10
- IMDb: 7.7/10
- Letterboxd: 4.32/5
- Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
- Metacritic: 80
- TMDB: 7.7/10
Director
Abbas Kiarostami
Production
Kanoon, Kiarostami Foundation, CiBy 2000
Cast
Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Safar Ali Moradi, Mir Hossein Noori, Elham Imani, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Ahmad Ansari
Where to watch
Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A spare, haunting existential drama that turns a simple premise into a profound meditation on despair, dignity, and the fragile reasons people choose to keep living. Its minimalist style and open-ended final gesture make it one of the great contemplative films of the 1990s.
Best for
- viewers who like slow cinema and philosophical dramas
- fans of minimalist filmmaking and long takes
- people interested in existential or spiritual cinema
- audiences open to ambiguous, unresolved endings
Skip if
- you want a plot-driven film with constant action
- you dislike repetition, silence, or long conversational scenes
- you prefer clear explanations and emotional catharsis
- you are sensitive to suicide-related subject matter
Overview
Taste of Cherry is built from restraint: a man drives through the outskirts of Tehran, asking strangers to help him die, and Kiarostami turns that simple structure into something vast and unsettling. The film is less interested in plot mechanics than in the shifting moral weather between people, where a brief conversation can feel like a verdict on life itself.
Worth noting
What makes it so powerful is the balance between distance and intimacy. The camera often keeps us just far enough away to notice the landscape, the light, and the rhythm of the road, yet the dialogue lands with extraordinary force. It is a film about loneliness, but also about the stubborn persistence of human connection, even when it arrives late and imperfectly.
Bottom line
The ending is famously divisive, but it feels true to the film’s method: withholding certainty and asking the viewer to sit with possibility rather than closure. For viewers willing to meet it on its own quiet terms, it is devastating, humane, and unforgettable.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Eli Hayes (5★) · 4291 likes
That shot of Mr. Badii's shadow enveloped by the infinite golden-brown hue of the falling earth? Yeah, pure genius. The true definition of a suspenseful film, but with a stronger emotional payoff than your typical keep-you-guessing movie. Deserving of its Palme.
Edgar Cochran ✝️🍋 (5★) · 3959 likes
Remember that Kiarostami is a humanist. He is concerned more with the human condition than with the motives of the characters, although he sometimes puts a lot of emphasis on the latter as well. Having said this, if any person has been put to the extreme of deciding to commit suicide, that situation is so tragically empathetic that the motives shouldn't matter. Kiarostami knew this: What would be the difference between a breakup, the assassination of somebody, the loss of… more Remember that Kiarostami is a humanist. He is concerned more with the human condition than with the motives of the characters, although he sometimes puts a lot of emphasis on the latter as well. Having said this, if any person has been put to the extreme of deciding to commit suicide, that situation is so tragically empathetic that the motives shouldn't matter. Kiarostami knew this: What would be the difference between a breakup, the assassination of somebody, the loss of… more
Logan Kenny (5★) · 3429 likes
we are not alone. time takes us through a journey of pain and regret and moments where it feels like nothing can bring us salvation. and yet, we can look at the sunrise, remember the times where the wind blew through our loved ones’ hair, the way ocean water feels against our skin, how our favourite foods taste. we can remember all the beautiful things that have happened to us, and if we keep going long enough, fighting to survive,… more we are not alone. time takes us through a journey of pain and regret and moments where it feels like nothing can bring us salvation. and yet, we can look at the sunrise, remember the times where the wind blew through our loved ones’ hair, the way ocean water feels against our skin, how our favourite foods taste. we can remember all the beautiful things that have happened to us, and if we keep going long enough, fighting to survive,… more
Robert Franco (5★) · 3076 likes
never has the reason to why one shouldn’t kill oneself been put as simply or as beautifully as Bagheri’s question to Badii... ”you want to give up the taste of cherries?”
CinemaShadow (5★) · 2635 likes
A film laden with grand ideas and themes - with a vision to match. Yet it's never self-serving; it's self-conscious enough to be humbled by its own perspective in the presence of both the existential and the spiritual. A rare film that recognizes not only the potential but also the limitations of cinema. No film about death has ever felt more alive.
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Topics
slow cinema, existential drama, minimalism, philosophical, humanist, road movie, 1990s arthouse, meditative, ambiguous ending, Iranian cinema