Taste of Cherry
A solitary Tehran driver recruits strangers to help complete his planned suicide, forcing quiet confrontations with mortality, faith, and life's modest pleasures.
Overview
A poignant exploration of life and death unfolds as a man seeks a final companion on his tragic journey.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Glacial
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- austere
- contemplative
- melancholic
- quiet evening
- reflective viewing
What critics said
Critics broadly regard the film as an ambitious, richly ambiguous, and visually powerful meditation on suicide and the value of living, though its minimalist pacing divides viewers.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Mr. Badii's repeated conversations and limited personal exposition turn his search into an open meditation on the value of living.
Badii drives through Tehran's outskirts seeking assistance, encountering a soldier, a seminarian, and a taxidermist.
Construction sites, quarries, dusty roads, and excavated hills dominate the film's spare visual world.
The film withholds Badii's biography and leaves the meaning of his plan and its resolution deliberately uncertain.
Films like Taste of Cherry, and why
The Passenger
shares contemplative pacing, existential inquiry, minimalist storytelling, and an emotionally restrained road structure
The Seventh Seal
shares spare visual design, philosophical dialogue, ambiguous meaning, and meditations on mortality
The Wind Will Carry Us
shares Iranian new wave sensibility, rural landscapes, patient observation, and questions about death and human connection
Nostalgia
shares an austere road movie form, encounters with strangers, and reflective examination of despair
Movie Details
- Director
- Abbas Kiarostami
- Release Date
- 1997-09-28
- Runtime
- 99 min
- Rating
- 7.7 / 10 (739)
Cast
- Homayoun Ershadi
- Abdolrahman Bagheri
- Safar Ali Moradi
- Mir Hossein Noori
- Elham Imani
- Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari
- Ahmad Ansari
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- HBO Max Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel, HBO Max
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Taste of Cherry about?
- A solitary Tehran driver recruits strangers to help complete his planned suicide, forcing quiet confrontations with mortality, faith, and life's modest pleasures.
- What is Taste of Cherry like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Taste of Cherry as glacial, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Taste of Cherry violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Taste of Cherry as mild.
- What did critics think of Taste of Cherry?
- Critics broadly regard the film as an ambitious, richly ambiguous, and visually powerful meditation on suicide and the value of living, though its minimalist pacing divides viewers.
- Which films are like Taste of Cherry?
- Films with a similar feel include The Passenger, The Seventh Seal, The Wind Will Carry Us, and Nostalgia.
- How long is Taste of Cherry?
- Taste of Cherry runs 99 minutes.
- Where can I watch Taste of Cherry?
- In United States, Taste of Cherry streams on HBO Max Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel, HBO Max.
