Taste of Cherry

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Taste of Cherry

1998

1h 38m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

82%

Tomatometer

39 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) 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 (Mir Hossein Noori), 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.

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Critics Consensus

Taste of Cherry's somewhat simple aesthetic belies a richly ambiguous character study with an impressively ambitious thematic scale.

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Keith Uhlich

House Next Door

Mar 6, 2007

Taste of Cherry might be Kiarostami's most difficult film.

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John Hartl

Film.com

Jul 24, 2001

Has a visual style that seems rudimentary but becomes increasingly hypnotic and resonant.

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Marjorie Baumgarten

Austin Chronicle

Jan 1, 2000

2.5/5

The film's ambiguous ending has enough possible interpretations to fuel at least a dozen post-screening arguments. Others may just want to flee the scene and allow our enigmatic hero to go gentle into that good night.

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Wael Khairy

The Cinephile Fix

Sep 28, 2022

“Taste of Cherry” doesn’t argue for or against the concept of suicide, but it does ask for a compassionate view on the desire to do so.

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Ellie Lucas

From the Front Row

Nov 9, 2020

4/4

Attains a kind of haunting mysticism, profoundly shifting the audience's perception of reality. It's Kiarostami's finest work, and one of the best films of the 1990s.

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Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Nov 3, 2020

4/5

Taste of Cherry is perhaps Kiarostami's most universal projection of grace and suffering, reflecting a world which offers as much beauty as it does woe.

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Kyle M

@RT77296778 Jul 4, 2026

Independence cinema finds simplistic tendency in approaching broader topics with aesthetically engrossing merits absorbing the performative deliverance that sharply understood what requires regarding ideal communication, and this philosophical heal for such contemplation neatly expresses the comprehended prompt through nuanced conversations, being mainly one-sided without much countering to signify the earnestly driven thought, by layered characterization amid societal insight. (B)

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Christian K

@ckacar Jun 2, 2026

Definitely interesting, its an extended drive and talk as a man searches for an assistant in his suicide. I expected the ending but that back half of this is effective.

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F P

@Effeppi May 27, 2026

Great movie, great to analyse and to think about it, it has a lot to teach, I didn't really like the "ope to interpretation" ending

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Leprechaun K

@LeprechaunKing May 2, 2026

Movie is slow-paced but yet engaging. It centers around the theme of life and death. To Be or Not To be.....

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James B.

@JamesBass Jan 21, 2026

★★★★★ A Haunting Masterpiece of Existential Cinema Taste of Cherry is a profoundly unsettling film, not because of what it shows, but because of what it asks. A quiet, persistent unease permeates every frame, circling a single, devastating question: what does it take for a person to decide to end their own life? Abbas Kiarostami employs minimalism in its most chilling form. Sparse dialogue, restrained performances, and repetitive journeys through barren landscapes strip the film down to its philosophical core. The result is an experience that feels less like conventional storytelling and more like an existential essay—one that unfolds slowly, patiently, and with unnerving restraint. For admirers of international cinema, and Iranian cinema in particular, Taste of Cherry is deeply rewarding. Its power lies in suggestion rather than exposition. Unlike The Vanishing (the French/Dutch original), where horror is made explicit, Kiarostami leaves the true terror entirely to the imagination—where it lingers long after the film ends. This is cinema that trusts the viewer, challenges comfort, and refuses easy answers. A quiet masterpiece.

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Patrick S

@PatrickStruik Dec 13, 2025

Kiarostami masterpiece.

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Abbas Kiarostami

Director

Homayoun Ershadi

Mr. Badii

Abdolrahman Bagheri

Mr. Bagheri

Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari

Soldier

Safar Ali Moradi

The Soldier

Mir Hossein Noori

The seminarian

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Synopsis

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi) 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 (Mir Hossein Noori), 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.

Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Producer: Abbas Kiarostami
Screenwriter: Abbas Kiarostami
Distributor: Zeitgeist Films
Production Co: Abbas Kiarostami Productions
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Persian
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 20, 1998, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 15, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA): $253.0K
Runtime: 1h 38m
Aspect Ratio: 35mm

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