Still from The Wind Will Carry Us of Kiarostami

Gilles Deleuze – 'On Bergsonism'
Abbas Kiarostami - 'Taste of Cherry' 'The Wind Will Carry Us' 'Where Is the Friend's Home?'
William H. Davies – 'Leisure'

Deleuze and Kiarostami – 'A Conversation'

Gilles Deleuze was a French philosopher who has a large body of work for little time of active work. He is renowned for his writing on philosophy, literature, film and fine art. Some of his acclaimed works include 'A Thousand Plateaus', 'Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus' and his metaphysical study 'Difference and Repetition' which is also considered to be his magnum opus. In this essay, we are going to look at 'On Bergsonism' in juxtaposition with three films by Kiarostami.

Abbas Kiarostami is a critically acclaimed Iranian director. His films are based on very simple plots that unfold subtly and play with the ideas of time, space, character and transitions. The use of characters and their evolution is done beautifully while giving an understanding of Iran and its culture. Specifically looking at three of his films; "Where Is My Friend's Home?" and "Taste of Cherry" and "The Wind Will Carry Us" made in the late 20th century, to develop an understanding of his use and building of time, space and characters. With the observations and understandings from his films, and Deleuze's philosophies of time and duration a greater knowledge of films can be developed. This is a result of personal reflections of the two independent, yet resonating works, through which time and cinema can be evolved.

'The Wind Will Carry Us', starts with a conversation inside a car and the camera following it from a distance. Slowly, the camera comes closer and becomes the driver's perspective. All this while, the conversations remain in the foreground and the dialogues build the plot for the characters to come. The main character and his friends pretend to be engineers but are actually visiting the village in order to witness the death of an old lady and record the post-death procession and rituals. After having spent over a couple of weeks, the old lady still continues to live and this tests the patience of the engineers. Behzad starts to appreciate the pace of life in the village and experiences a deeper understanding of life through interactions with the people of the village.

'Taste of Cherry' begins exactly same way as the previous film. The environment is different as it begins in the city and eventually leads to the winding roads of Iran. The entire story takes place over one day and ends with the beginning of another. A similar style of filmmaking has been used where the conversations from the car remain in the foreground and the camera switches between long shots of the car, inside the car and Mr Badii's perspective while he talks to his recruits. The entire film's narrative unfolds within a day with conversations that set the pace of the film and involve the viewers in its trance-like state. Through the duration of the film, multiple timelines and narratives are explored and there is an intertwining of parallel stories. The sweet tasting mulberries save the life of one of the recruits, and the viewers are given a taste of cherry under which Mr Badii lies in the hope of being woken up by his friend. The last sequence before the blackout is with Mr Badii going inside the grave and a thunderstorm approaching. The film then breaks the fourth wall and shows footage of the filming of 'Taste of Cherry'.

'Where Is My Friend's Home?' is a story of a young boy and his responsibilities. Apart from school and his homework, he also has to help his mother with chores and fulfil his grandfather's wishes. The plot revolves around the boy searching for his friend, in order to return his book, that he took, by mistake, at school. If he fails to return the book, his friend will be suspended from school. There are multiple obstacles on his way to help his friend, but the boy's determination and worry are shown beautifully in the film. Kiarostami deals with social structures, families and the young boy's thoughts through dialogues and more so through the silences in the film. He plays with time and space to create an environment that emotionally resonates with the viewers as they get a glimpse of Iran and its culture.

The plot of 'Taste of Cherry' starts from inside Mr Badii's car, he is in search of a man willing to help him be buried after he commits suicide. The search began from the city as he looked for workers on the roadside, his search continues for the entire day, until the evening when he finally finds someone who will carry out the task for him. 'Where is my friend's home' has a very similar time frame (one day and the next morning) and duration and pace has been dealt with very differently in its case. In the first film, time is not important for the plot. The plot seems to be stranded just like Mr Badii, the pace of the film is extremely slow and monotonous reeling the viewers into the story. Whereas, in the second film, there is a crunch of time and Ahmed has to hurry throughout the film to avoid trouble. He needs to hurry to return the book, to buy bread from the bakery, since it will shut down or to chase the man on the horse all the way to Koker. This resonates with Deleuze's ideas of intuition as both Mr Badii and Ahmed are basing their decisions on intuition. In Mr Badii's case he does not lack time, he is willing to die but intends to do so in a traditional way, and in order to do so he has to go through a lot and that is something he is more than willing to do. We see a lot of patience in Mr Badii's character as the decision he is making is a difficult one and accepts that one that he is asking of the recruit is a difficult one too. In Ahmed's case, the decision is simple and clear. From his experience in class, he very well remembers how scary the teacher was and that is engraved in his memory that makes him take the effort to run between two villages to look for his friend.

Kiarostami also has a very peculiar style of following one character throughout the film. This is another element of his films that involves viewers so deeply into the plot of the film. There are no parallel cuts to the storyline; the camera follows one person and his interaction with the others. That is, one duration and its exchange or interaction with the other durations. This also compliments his idea of the presence of multiple durations and each present simultaneously exchanging data to form its course forward, to evolve. Without interactions between durations, time would seem to exist in space without progressing, without evolving. This emphasis onone duration can be seen, as the director follows Ahmed only in the second film and little information about other duration is given to the viewer that helps build a context, environment, culture of the people, space and feel of the location. The same pattern is executed in 'Taste of Cherry' and 'The Wind Will Carry Us'. The camera follows Mr Badii and Behzad in the two films respectively; their interactions give us a better understanding of the space, its history, and build a context for each of the characters. Dialogues are heavily used to explain the plot and build the character or each person. Behzad comes to a village in order to document the procession following the death of an old woman.

The true purpose of their trip has not been shared but the real plot of the film is based on the idea of waiting. Behzad shows up in this village with two of his friends and now has to wait for the old woman to die so that they can shoot the procession. In a sense, it is a comedy about the stark differences in concepts like space, time and duration between the urban and the rural. Constant phone calls from the producer nag Behzad about the shoot while Behzad waits helplessly but with determination. This concept of 'waiting' facilitates and emphasises the difference in the duration between two spaces, one that is entirely revealed to us (the village) and the other that is only heard about (the city, Tehran). Time seems to be moving faster in the city and therefore there is impatience that the protagonist deals with; along with the producer, his two friends are also impatient to go back home and refuse to realise the importance or meaning of the delay. To quote Deleuze at this point, "Rhythms of duration, in relation to durations that are more or less fast or slow – that each duration is an absolute, and that each rhythm is a duration". Behzad is slowly getting used to the pace of the village, adapting himself and is open to acknowledge and respect another way of life. To the extent that he has more meaningful conversations with the people who are more down to earth, or even underground. The ditch-digger and the doctor are rooted people, who share a greater sense of understanding of life and its purpose. Whereas every time he goes up to the hill (higher ground), apparently where you can converse with god, he deals with impatience and a wide gap in understanding. His frustration with phone calls is seen each time he goes up to the hill where the cemetery is also located and instead of having a conversation that on a higher level or one that is expected to be of more relevance, he ends up frustrated.

"…the adaptation of the past to the present, the utilisation of the past in terms of the present – what Bergson calls 'attention to life'…" Ahmed and his friend Mohammed are at school and their teacher is checking their homework. Ahmed's friend has not done his homework in his notebook multiple times and this is what upsets the teacher. As mentioned earlier, the entire film's plot revolves around the fear of being suspended and that is what leads Ahmed to go on a hunt to find his friend. Along the way, you meet other children from his school and see their life outside of school. The boy with the backache is shown carrying heavy milk cans, which is probably responsible for his painful condition. The utilisation of the past is shown through the fear created due to previous experiences with the teacher and the backache along with the milk cans. Similarly, in Taste of Cherry, Mr Badii's past is not revealed to us although a feeling is created which emphasises the loss of hope he faces in his life and that translates to his decision of taking his own life.

The three films share a common understanding of duration and space, as they are more involved in the experience rather than reasons and deliberate construction. Duration is an experience as in Deleuze's words, "Duration is essentially memory, consciousness and freedom". These three aspects translate to be an experience created by the film which involves the viewers, deeply, without providing a chance of stepping back and looking at the narrative objectively. Emotional stress causes the viewers to involve themselves into the film and have certain expectations from the narrative. Kiarostami surprises and disappoints the viewers with open endings or nondramatic endings. The films are not fictionalised as we would imagine it to be, but it feels like documentary style was used to portray real life events, and only a part of the event that the viewer has to make meaning out of. This meaning will be different for each viewer as the simplicity of the script raises existential questions in the viewers' minds. It is in some sort an anti-drama that resonates with real lives of real people because of the simplicity and realism that the film portrays. As Deleuze says, "Duration defined less by succession than by coexistence". Experience of the film coexists with that of the real and presents the multiplicity of duration and its coexistence with multiple truths. Succession would be defined by chronological development of the narrative, but the narrative here coexists between the film, multiple characters of the film and the viewers themselves. 'Taste of Cherry' has multiple durations with each of the characters entering and leaving the car but at the same time, the director has ended the film by leaving Mr Badii in his soon-to-be grave and broken the fourth wall by showing footage of the film shoot itself. The meta of the narrative shown to us challenges the ideas posed to us through the duration of the film by breaking out of the film.

Kiarostami deals with transition spaces in a way that they do not just remain transition spaces. Ideally, when a character travels from one location to the other, you see few shots that help us imagine the distance that he has travelled, whereas his films are about the travel itself. Although, sometimes, the journey ends soon enough, like in 'Wind Will Carry Us' but the emotional journey continues beyond the film, constantly evolving and enriching. This exchange is glorified in his films and brings character to his actors and plot. The beauty of treating each space with time and duration helps you develop a keen understanding of the process of each action and decision rather than just seeing the action itself. Since process is a continuous form of duration, it has been emphasised and as Deleuze said, "The fundamental characteristics of duration are continuity and heterogeneity…It is a condition of experience…"

The beginning of each of his films is the most important and necessary means to convey the emotion and build a strong narrative. 'Taste of Cherry' begins with Mr Badii driving around Tehran looking for someone who would be willing to help him. There is absolutely no dialogue for the entire first sequence and we just hear chitter-chatter from the labourers waiting on the side of the road. Even the time, when a few run up to his window, he remains quiet and drives forward without a response. Slowly, you see the entire landscape change outside through the window and you feel yourself patiently entering the winding roads through the hills of Iran. This process of slow but deliberate movement from within the city to outside is very important for the foundation of the film as it develops a grave and emotional relationship with it viewers. The anticipation of what is to come builds interest and tests the patience of the viewers before the plot slowly unveils and does so only through conversations.

'The Wind Will Carry Us' has a very similar beginning to the earlier film, long shots of a car through the winding roads of Iran's mountainside. Eventually you see the landscape from inside the car and hear the dialogues in the foreground the entire time. Even conversations where they ask for directions are shot through the window showing the landscape with the farmers while the identity of the protagonist (the driver of the car) remains hidden. This wait for the car to reach the village forms the foundation of the film, as the latter part of the film is entirely just about the wait as explained earlier. It is the expectation of what is to come, which holds the attention of the viewers and resonates with the narrative of the entire film. The larger theme of the film is about going with the flow, letting the wind carry, immersing in our own emotions and emerging out of it all with a greater understanding and accepting of time and space as separate and independent entities.

The last film, also deals with the beginning shot in a very similar way. You see the door of what seems to be a classroom. The door is slowly moving with the wind and banging against the frame a few times. You can hear the children inside the class making a lot of noise; obviously the teacher is not present. For a very long time, the shot of the door remains and eventually the teacher walks in, finally, giving permission to the camera to enter, too. It almost feels like any adult supervision is avoided at that moment and the children are given their space and only when the teacher enters can one see the children as otherwise their reaction and responses would have been very different. The same play with anticipation is seen in the earlier two films and it prepares the viewers for the story further. The simplicity in the story contributes to the initial shot as you notice much more detail when more time is spent on each shot. The process is a lot more engaging and challenging, but that is much more fruitful and pleasant at the end.

Similarly, his play with the endings of the films brings out either deep emotional satisfaction or leaves one stranded to understand and come to terms with multiple things that were left unsaid by oneself. Both these methods may or may not lead to a logical or satisfying end, but that is exactly why they are memorable and stay in our minds. For example, to look at 'The Wind Will Carry Us', Behzad during the course of the film finds the thighbone of a man in the ditch. He asks his friend, the ditch-digger to pass him the bone, and the bone is thrown upwards at him from inside the ditch. That bone is something that he takes away from there, from the higher ground (the cemetery), from his friend (the ditch-digger), from conversations with him. This bone is kept safely in his car, his medium to reach back home. Except the last shot of the film, has Behzad taking the bone from the dashboard of his car and throwing it into a stream that takes the bone away with it…downstream. This is very symbolic of what Behzad takes away from his conversations with his friend the ditch-digger and in a more general understanding, from the village, their tradition that is so deeply rooted that you have to appoint a ditchdigger to get it out. In order to understand culture, rituals and its importance, one has to dig deep in order to get a better understanding and get a larger perspective of things. Behzad has learnt a lot from his stay in the village, he came to witness the death of a woman and he learnt about his own life before returning home. The bone was just a sign of the learning and his action of throwing it into the stream and letting it flow resonates with the film's title and overall feeling.

Just like how Behzad gains some amount of freedom and a lot of insight about life, 'Taste of Cherry' brings change in Mr Badii, too. Since the beginning you see him as a character who has had to deal with a lot of ups and downs in his life and has now, finally, after a lot of thinking, decided to take his own life. Whether or not this decision is correct or wrong is not discussed in the film, multiple perspectives to his decision are shown through the other characters and their ideologies. The reason for Mr Badii to go hunting for someone who was willing to take up a task he had in mind was so that he dies and is buried just like he wanted. By the end of the film he has found someone who is willing to help him, but the real reason for which he heads out seems to be something else altogether. Mr Badii is, actually, looking for someone who can give him some insight into life that can probably bring peace to his mind and help him attain a sense of acceptance for his situation and move beyond that. In a sense, the story of the taxidermist does that to him, it brings him back to reality in a sense where he can truly appreciate the joy of small things like mulberries. The last sequence of the film has Mr Badii switching off the lights of his house, locking up his house and leaving to commit suicide. Essentially, you see some amount of hesitation and uncertainty in his final decision. By the end of the film, it feels more like he wants to wake up when the taxidermist finds him in the ditch than being dead in the ditch. It resonates deeply with Deleuze's comparison of the sugar dissolving, where he says, "I must wait until the sugar dissolves has a broader meaning than is given to it by its context. It signifies that my own duration, such as I live it in the impatience of waiting, for example, serves to reveal other durations that beat to other rhythms, that differ in kind from mine."

'Where Is My Friend's Home' has a much more satisfying and happy ending where the problem is resolved and both the children are safe and not to be expelled, the homework is done and the book is returned. The last shot in the night shows Ahmed returning home having failed to return the book and the viewers are left to wonder whether everything will be alright, but the next morning he gets late to come to class and once having taken his seat, he brings out two books and returns his friend's with his homework done. This helps us regain the faith and appreciate the effort the young boy is willing to make to save his friend from trouble. This end is extremely different from that of the other two films and is not as profound as the other two and that is exactly what further emphasises Deleuze's theory of multiplicity and the independence of multiple durations from one another.

Abbas Kiarostami's films seem to be dealing with time in a very peculiar way. Most of his films seem to be managing time in a very leisurely way, just like how time is in the village in 'The Wind Will Carry Us' or the role time has in Mr Badii's life. This aspect can be termed as leisure since it is, essentially, freedom (not bound to time), creates breathing space for the viewers and it could also be described as idle hours. Just exactly as Behzad's life in the village, the change in pace is drastic and it is portrayed by very simple actions like the regular phone calls from Tehran. His style of filmmaking can be complimented by a poem that could best describe the importance of leisure in our lives and therefore in film, too:

Leisure
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
– William H. Davies

Just taking from the last two lines of the poetry, he has explained how unlucky we are to not have time to stare and just be. Experience life as it is, and notice the beauty of the environment around us. Exactly how we see more detail and beauty in Kiarostami's films because he gives enough time to each shot, each frame, each dialogue. We see beauty through the pace of the film and that is what we have to do to see the beauty of life. The taxidermist from 'Taste of Cherry' and the doctor from 'The Wind Will Carry Us' say nothing different from this. Observing and experiencing, flowing with the wind or flowing with the water is what will help one see the beauty of life as it is in its purity.

Kiarostami's play with time and space enhances the viewers' capabilities of drawing meaning from the structure of the film and not only rely on dialogues for substance to make meaning. He has developed techniques that help him subtly paint a picture of duration in spaces, whether it is the inside of a car, or the point of view from a car. Whether it is long shots of Iran with the car in the distance or long shots of a young boy chasing behind a horse in order to deliver and fulfill his responsibilities. These elements that resonate between Deleuze's understanding of time and space and Kiarostami's techniques to deal with the same form an interesting and everlasting relationship that converse with each other and have the freedom and consciousness to develop new methods and understandings. Forming new meanings and understanding of duration by applying already existing concepts with newer techniques to reinvent the style of a complete cinematic experience.

**********