TEHRAN -- The 73rd Venice Film Festival plans to pay tribute to recently deceased filmmakers Abbas Kiarostami and Michael Cimino.

Kiarostami will be remembered with the screening of “76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Kiarostami”, a montage film made by his close friend and collaborator Seifollah Samadian, Variety announced last week.

The organizers of the festival, which will be held from August 31 to September 10, also will screen a previously unseen digital short from his unfinished series “24 Frames”. 

Cimino will be commemorated with a screening of “Year of the Dragon”, his movie about a police detective who cracks down on an organized crime ring in Chinatown after the murders of Triad and Mafia leaders.

Speaking to the Persian service of ISNA on Monday, Samadian who accompanied Kiarostami during some his projects over the past 25 years, said that the idea to make the film was offered by Kiarostami’s son, Ahmad, and the director of the Venice festival welcomed it.

“I spent the past week reviewing all my works to select pictures I took during our joint travels in Iran and abroad,” he stated.

He said, “In ‘76 Minutes and 15 Seconds with Kiarostami,’ we face a picture of Kiarostami as a filmmaker, photographer, poet, graphic designer, video artist and even a carpenter, and above all, a natural born lover of work and life who never can be described by words.”          

The title of the film refers to the duration of Kiarostami’s life, 76 years and 15 days.

Samadian collaborated as a cinematographer in Kiarostami’s documentaries “ABC Africa”, “Roads of Kiarostami” and “Five Dedicated to Ozu”. He also accompanied Kiarostami in numerous travel that he made to create his photo collections.

Kiarostami who was suffering from a severe gastrointestinal disease died in a Paris hospital on July 4.

Photo: This combination photo shows recently deceased filmmakers Abbas Kiarostami (R) and Michael Cimino.

MMS/YAW