by Joyless Creatures Staff
On July 4, world cinema lost one of its greatest modern practitioners - Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who made more than forty films since he began working in the 1970s (as a member of the influential Iranian New Wave). Initially a painter and graphic designer, Kiarostami shifted to film when he helped open a filmmaking department at the Institute for Intellectual Development for Children in Tehran - hardly a coincidence, given the large number of child characters in his work (especially his earlier films).