These short sequences, most in black-and-white, some in color, are breathtaking in the beauty of the photography, and startling in the acuteness and vibrant curiosity of the vision. A Bruegel painting comes to animated life. In a pristine, snow-covered field, two horses frolic in a skittish mating dance, seen through the half-open tinted window of a car as a tango plays on the radio. “24 Frames” is a simple yet profound work, composed of 24 short film sequences that Kiarostami created as the behind-the-scenes moving image accompaniment to still photographs he had composed. In the festival program booklet, his description includes the explanation, “I decided to use the photos I had taken through the years. I include 4 minutes 30 seconds of what I imagined might have taken place before or after each image that I had captured.” A special screening of “24 Frames,” the final film by beloved, admired, and much-honored Iranian director/writer/photographer Abbas Kiarostami (“ Certified Copy,” “ Taste of Cherry”) was screened in the Grande Theatre Lumiere, presented by festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux, and screened in the presence of the director’s son Ahmad Kiarostami. Last summer in Paris, Abbas Kiarostami died unexpectedly from the effects of surgery, leaving a body of work that teaches us what it really means to see.
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