A Unique Copy: On Kiarostami’s Certified Copy (by Bamshad)

Bamshad was born in Iran but his family had to flee the country when he was ten to seek political asylum in Sweden. Bamshad is a medical student in his final years, and spends every second of his free time watching movies and writing about them on Film Zoom. For the Iranian Film Blogathon, he has written a lovely contemplation of Abbas Kiarostami’s latest film, Certified Copy, which has been winning raves (I myself am in love with it) and will open next month here in the US. Thank you so much, Bamshad!

Abbas Kiarostami’s first film outside his native country Iran, Certified Copy has in Sweden received the lackluster title Möte i Toscana which translates into Meeting in Tuscany. Although the main reason behind this switch has been to (in addition to Juliette Binoche’s name) help market the film to a broader audience through associations with similar romantic affairs, it suits Kiarostami’s intentions very well.

Certified Copy has thus deliberately been designed to remind one of other works, it is on the surface a copy. Using the art world as an example the director contemplates the difference between the original and the reproduction. From his point of view our fixation with the confirmation of a certain piece’s authenticity is superficial and redundant since all works of art are essentially copies. In the same way that he himself has followed in the footsteps of the directors who came before him, Leonardo da Vinci was influenced by the art of others. A painting’s true worth lies solely in the eye of the beholder. Consequently the value of a copy can touch and even surpass that of the original.

Kiarostami applies in the remaining two thirds of the movie his argument to human beings and human relations. If we all start out as originals and with time become copies of ourselves, our value (and that of our relationships) diminishes, as seen from the other perspective. In the same fashion the pair in the movie (Binoche and William Shimell) goes from original to copy to finally end up as a certified copy. But fact is none of us is unique in his/her own way, no matter how much we would wish it to be so. All of our gestures and reactions are either inherited or acquired. What makes a human being truly special and confirms her worth is the way she is looked upon by her lover.

Certified Copy opens March 11th in the US.

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3 Responses to A Unique Copy: On Kiarostami’s Certified Copy (by Bamshad)

  1. sheila says:

    // In the same fashion the pair in the movie (Binoche and William Shimell) goes from original to copy to finally end up as a certified copy. //

    Bamshad, this is a brilliant point. That segue from original to copy to certified copy is one of the most memorable things about this amazing film – and the devastation beneath it (what does it mean to not be an original??) is palpable.

    As I said to you in my email, I also love how hilarious this film is. It has that dizzy quality of a screwball, with two people trying to connect, but missing one another … their various reactions to one another from the very start are sheer liquid joy to watch.

    Beautiful movie – I’m going to a press screening of it again this week, and I can’t wait to see it again.

  2. Kent says:

    This sounds wonderful! Thank you, look forward to screening it!

  3. Bamshad says:

    The film is indeed very funny, something I personally didn’t expect it to be.

    I also enjoyed the way she used his own arguments against him (especially in the wonderful J-j-j-James scene).

    In case you missed it, here is the film’s press conference from Cannes 2010. It is quite emotional, Kiarostami took some time to talk about Panahi’s situation: http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/mediaPlayer/10614.html

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