Directed by Abbas Kiarostami | Iran, France | 114 min

24 Frames (2017) is a final, elegiac work from Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. The project was originally conceived as a collaboration with the Louvre, animating a series of iconic paintings by Brueghel, Picasso, Millet, and others by adding layers of digital imagery and sound elements. The concept eventually shifted from a focus on paintings to centre Kiarostami’s own photographic work, aiming to capture, via moving images, the moments before and after a photograph is taken. As the title suggests, the film comprises twenty-four discrete shots, held as lingering vignettes that unfold on screen for about four and half minutes each. The result is meditative and profoundly affirming, framing an extended encounter with the temporal and material character of the medium itself. 24 Frames is rewarding for viewers new to Kiarostami’s cinema, and also for those familiar with his acclaimed body of work. Critic and filmmaker James Slaymaker has called Kiarostami’s final production “one of the most ravishingly beautiful and aesthetically radical swansongs in cinema history.”

In collaboration with the University of Calgary's Film Department

Part of our Final Frames Series.

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In the spirit of respect, reciprocity and truth, we honour and acknowledge that this screening takes place on Moh’kinsstis and the traditional Treaty 7 territory, as well as the oral practices of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta District 6. Finally, we acknowledge all Nations, Indigenous and non, who live, work and play, as well as help steward this land, honour and celebrate this territory.