Shirin

Synopsis: Celebrated Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami directed this experimental feature in which, in the truest sense, the audience is the star. Shirin was shot during a performance of a play based on Farrideh Golbou’s narrative poem Khosrow e Shirin, a love story in which an artist and an emperor both vie for the hand of a queen from Armenia. However, what is happening on stage is never seen; instead, Kiarostami trains his camera on the women watching the performance (one of whom is French actress Juliette Binoche, while the others are artists from Iran). We see the story as it is reflected in the reaction of the spectators, who laugh, cry and become drawn into the emotions of the tale that is played out before them. Shirin was an official selection at the 2008 Venice Film Festival.