Watch This: Abbas Kiarostami’s Early Educational Film COLORS

Abbas Kiarostami, the Iranian master filmmaker whose works include CLOSE-UP (1990), A TASTE OF CHERRY (1997), THE WIND WILL CARRY US (1999) and CERTIFIED COPY (2010) died Monday at age 76. He was one of the great figures of the international cinema and helped to put Iran on the cinematic world map.

Of Kiarostami’s death, his countryman and fellow filmmaker Asghar Farhadi said, “He wasn’t just a film-maker, he was a modern mystic, both in his cinema and his private life.” and “He definitely paved ways for others and influenced a great deal of people. It’s not just the world of cinema that has lost a great man; the whole world has lost someone really great.”

Before his greatest filmic triumphs, Kiarostami spent 20 years making movies for Tehran’s Kanun (Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults). It may surprise many to see that Kiarostami’s educational films could be very lighthearted and full of visual gags, like the following, RANG-HA (COLORS) from 1976. RANG-HA is a film of poetry and life, aimed at developing children, but also indicative of its maker’s mind and spirit.

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