The Wedding Suit

Due to print availability issues, we will no longer be showing The Experience as part of this program.

Pressured by two of his street kid pals, a young tailor’s apprentice loans out a wedding suit intended for a spoiled lad, to be picked up by his mother the following day. Kiarostami combines his increasingly complex and witty perspective on the lives of kids scraping to get by in an adult world with an eye for suspense: What’s this suit actually being used for by the boys, and will it be returned in time for the wedding? Subtly drawn class contrasts and the symbolic weight of an iconic object—the suit itself—underlines Kiarostami’s ever-developing skills at observation and spare, exact storytelling.

Screening with:

Bread and Alley/Nanva kucheh
Abbas Kiarostami | 1970 | Iran | 35mm | 10m
In this wordless, Chaplin-esque Kiarostami short, a small boy makes his way home clutching a loaf of bread. In an alley, he finds a stray dog blocking his way. Stymied, the boy tries to follow an old man, who sets off in the wrong direction. So, the boy is forced to confront his canine antagonist.

Breaktime/Zang-e tafrih
Abbas Kiarostami | 1972 | Iran | 10m
Punished for having smashed a window with his ball, a child has to stand in the school hallway. When school lets out, he heads home but finds his way blocked by a football match. He manages to get through, but then follows a bumpy road that leads him to the outskirts of the city.