Where is the Friend's Home? - 1986
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
A young schoolboy mistakenly takes his friend's notebook and must return it before the next day of school or his friend will be expelled.
Color, 1 hour 23 minutes, Farsi
Original Title: Khaneh Doust Khojast
Trailer currently not available
Star Rating

Firouzan Rank # 18
Cast
Babak Ahmadpour | Ahmad |
Ahmad Ahmadpour | Mohammad Reza Nehmatzadeh |
Khodabakhsh Defaie | Teacher |
Iran Otari | Mother |
Ayat Ansari | Father |
Sedigheh Toehidi | Old Lady Next Door |
Peiyman Maafi | Ali, The Neighbor's Son |
Rafi Defaie | Grandfather |
Mohammad Hossein Roohi | Old Carpenter |
Crew
Writer | Abbas Kiarostami |
Director | Abbas Kiarostami |
Producer | Ali Reza Zarrin |
Director of Photography | Farhad Saba |
Sound Recordist | Jahanghir Mirshekari Asghar Shahvardi Behrouz Maavian |
Editor | Abbas Kiarostami |
Sound Mixer | Hassan Zahedi |
Music | Aminollah Hossein |
Pictures

Credits roll over the sound of an unruly classroom and the sight of its poorly hinged door.

The teacher, late as usual, tells the children to behave when he is not there.

Mohammad Reza (right) is scolded for failing to write his homework in a proper notebook.

Ahmad helps Mohammad Reza after he falls, unknowingly taking his notebook afterwards.

Ahmad realizes his mistake.

Trademark Kiarostami as Ahmad runs to Poshteh - a long stationary shot on his subject and the path that must be traveled.

Ahmad thinks he has found a clue as to the whereabouts of Mohammad Reza's house.

Ahmad's grandfather speaks on the virtues of properly disciplining a child.

An old craftsman helps Ahmad find his destination but is more interested in lecturing him on the makes of windows and doors.

Unaware of the trouble that has gone into this particular assignment, the teacher simply comments, "Good Boy."
DVD
This movie is currently only available on VHS

External Reviews
By Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid
I highly recommend all of Abbas Kiarostami's films, but to start with I'd suggest "Where Is the Friend's Home?" (1987), the simplest and most moving of his films. In it, a young boy needs simply to return his cousin's composition book to him but doesn't know exactly where the cousin lives. In this film, as with his others, the journey itself, the time it takes, and the place we're in become more important than the actual destination. Seeing a Kiarostami film is as refreshing and exciting as discovering an Orson Welles or a Jean Renoir film for the first time. He's that good.

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