Where Is the Friend's Home?

On the surface, the premise of Abbas Kiarostami’s Where is the Friend’s House? is pretty straightforward: a schoolboy sets off on a journey to return a notebook to a classmate who lives in a neighboring village. On a deeper level, Kiarostami may be hinting at the importance of maintaining your humanity while living under an authoritarian regime. In the classroom, his teacher rules with an iron fist while at home, nobody can seem to hear his voice. Despite the circumstances, he reverts to basic human kindness in order to help his friend, who has been threatened with expulsion, ignoring the negative influences that are attempting to shape his character. Effectively shot in a neo-realist style, it is a touching story of compassion, duty, and friendship. Where is the Friend’s House? may be Kiarostami’s finest effort, which is saying something.

Abbas Kiarostami's Where is the Friend's house? is simple and deceptive film. it tells simple story of Ahmed seeks the journey of returning friend's notebook which he mistakenly brought home. He is searching his friend Mohammed Reza's home to save him from expulsion as the earlier in the classroom teacher has warned Mohammed Reza for not doing homework in notebook. Abbas Kiarostami tells this simple story in poetic manner but he he deceptively shows the authoritarian nature of the Iranian society where young people must obey things said by an elderly people followed in certain manner.

No podemos creer que tenga una calificación tan alta... La historia es lenta y aburrida, desarrollandose a ese mismo paso, con personajes con diálogos eternos y que no aportan nada de nada, el protagonista puede llegar a ser muy fastidioso con el mismo dialoguito de siempre, y el final es lo más anticlimático y monótono que pueda haber.

No, this is not part of the DC Universe, it's probably the furthest you could possibly get from that world actually. Abbas Kiarostami's film is the first in the so called 'Koker Trilogy'; a coining that had no influence from Kiarostami himself. The friend of the title is a young boy, Mohamed, who in the opening scene is scolded by his schoolteacher for forgetting his homework book (he left it at his cousins house who is also in the class and returns it to him). However, Ahmed, who the story focuses on and who sits beside Mohamed, mixes up their homework books at the end of the day, only realising when he arrives home. Knowing that Mohamed is under threat of expulsion if he doesn't complete his homework in the book, Ahmed takes it upon himself to return the book, despite Mohamed living in a neighbouring village he isn't familiar with, being helped and hindered on the way by various locals. I was lucky enough to track down a recent blu-ray restoration of the trilogy, and the opening film is a sumptuous visual treat, offering a fascinating cultural insight into the the village life of the Iranian region. The storyline is as simple as it sounds, but that's not what what the viewer is here for. The beautiful Persian dialogue, so naturally delivered by the cast, makes for a gorgeously simple tale of morality, cultural authority, and innocence. I'm hugely excited to watch the remaining films in the trilogy.

Beautiful use of music, minimal dialogues, simplicity at the best is what I can say about this film. Can see a master filmmaker in making with this first installment in Koker series.

Honestly, I found it a tad too dull and couldn't finish it. Nice colors and textures, but I am perhaps coming to the realization that Kiarostami can be a bit too dull without creating atmosphere or enough interesting depth in his movies. I'll of course watch more of them, but this is the third, and so far only The wind will carry us has really had some moments.

Kiarostami had a greater understanding of human nature than the vast majority of filmmakers could ever hope to. Where is My Friend's House? perfectly conveys the wonder, confusion, and idealism of childhood, as a simple task quickly becomes an epic adventure composed of moments that seem insignificant to all but Ahmedpour's Ahmed, the protagonist. The film uses elements that are distinctively Iranian (particularly the patriarchal, authoritarian nature of society and family) to comment on universal generational phenomena - the nostalgic, strict grandfather, the overbearing mother, the disinterested neighbors are characters that each viewer will recognize in some real-life counterpart. Simple, streamlined, and very much in line with past enorealism movements, Kiarostami's film may echo previous works that take advantage of the perspectives of young characters, but it remains a fantastic piece of film. (4.5/5)

Such a great simple story. An 8 year old boy accidentally takes his friends homework book home. Most adults don't listen to him. On his own he tries to find his friends home in a neighboring village to give him back his book before he gets in trouble the next day at school. The acting is natural as is the depiction of the two villages in Iran. Well worth watching.

Clocking in well under ninety minutes, Where is the Friend's House? (Khane-ye doust kodjast?) is a humble, direct, and brief little feature, running ever so simply on several emotional registers. One comes away from it with the increased notion that sometimes the problems of children should absolutely not be dismissed.

This early film by Abbas Kiarostami is also his best. It is a minor adventure of a little boy trying to return a notebook to his friend in a nearby village, and the different sorts of people who he runs into on the way, few of whom care about the small troubles of a small child. It is fun and atmospheric, and you become personally invested in seeing the boy complete a mission that is so important to him.