Kiarostami Starts Shooting Film in Japan

Cultural Heritage News (CHN): Internationally-renowned Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has started shooting his new film starring the Japanese actress Aoi Miyazaki.

The new production, The End, is scheduled to shoot for eight weeks in Tokyoand the nearby city of Yokohama, Screen Daily reported.

Co-produced by France’s MK2 and Japan’s Eurospace, the film features a “contemporary relationship in today’s Japan.”

 The story depicts the unusual relationship between a student and a brilliant, elderly academic with a thematic concern in an impressive atmosphere.

The Japanese cast features television star Rin Takanashi as the young student called Akiko and veteran actor Tadashi Okuno as the retired professor.

 The movie is Kiarostami’s second production outside Iran after his successful Certified Copy, which was also produced by the French company MK2.

Certified Copy was filmed in the Chianti countryside in Tuscany, Italy and premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film festival, where it won the Best Actress Award of the French festival for its lead actress Juliette Binoche.

The 106-minute love story has sold about 5.5 USD worldwide and has received numerous awards, including the Golden Spike award of the 2010 Valladolid Film Festival in Spain.

 Certified Copy has been screened in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Taiwan, the US and Sweden.

 Producers are also planning to screen the film in New Zealand, Australia,

Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

 As a filmmaker, painter, designer and photographer, Kiarostami has received many prestigious international awards, including the 1997 Cannes Golden Palm award and the 2008 Glory to the Filmmaker award of the Venice Film Festival.

He has also held a photo exhibition at Beijing’s Imperial City Art Museum.