TEHRAN – Abbas Kiarostami’s 2010 art film “Certified Copy” will be screened at the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which is set to be held from July 3 to 11 in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.

The film screening is part of the honoring ceremony for the French actress Juliette Binoche, who is to receive the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema at the festival, Mehr reported.

Written and directed by Kiarostami, “Certified Copy,” set in Tuscany, focuses on a British writer (William Shimell) and a French antiques dealer (Juliette Binoche), whose relationship undergoes an odd transformation over the course of a day. The film is a co-production of France, Italy, and Belgium.

The film premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where Binoche won the Best Actress award for her performance. Critically acclaimed, the film is considered to be among the best of the year and the decade.

Kiarostami and Binoche first met and became friends in the mid-1990s. Since then, they had both desired to work together, and in 2008, Binoche appeared briefly in Kiarostami's experimental film “Shirin”. 

During a visit to Tehran by Binoche, Kiarostami told her the synopsis of “Certified Copy” as a casual anecdote, which she said she fully believed until he confessed to having made it up. 

According to Kiarostami, studying the reactions of Binoche as she listened to the story was a vital part of the film's further development. “The film started to build according to the story that I was telling, but also according to my knowledge of her as a woman with her vulnerability, with her sensitivity, with what I knew about her soul, about her relationship with her children.”

Kiarostami is normally known for making films with amateur actors and almost no budget, but said he had no difficulties in making the transition to European cinema: “This was the simplest film for me to work on—even simpler than the work I've done on my shorts, because I was working with a professional team both in front of and behind the camera.”

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is the largest film festival in the Czech Republic and the most prestigious such festival in Central and Eastern Europe. It is one of the oldest A-list film festivals (i.e., non-specialized festivals with a competition for feature-length fiction films), a category it shares with the festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, San Sebastian, Montreal, Shanghai, and Tokyo. 

Among filmmakers, buyers, distributors, sales agents, and journalists, KVIFF is considered the most important event in all of Central and Eastern Europe.

Every year, the festival presents some 200 films from around the world, and regularly hosts famous and important filmmakers. The Karlovy Vary festival is intended for both film professionals and the general public, and offers visitors a carefully designed program, excellent facilities, and a broad range of other services.

SS/SAB