Five cannot fail to add to Abbas Kiarostami’s reputation as one of the most consistently innovative and visually talented filmmakers in the world. This is a richly poetic, radically minimalist film, featuring five extended sequences shot on hand-held camera along the shores of the Caspian Sea.
The sequences are much more than pretty pictures or documentary record - carefully constructed and manipulated, with a soundtrack composed as a symphony of natural noise, they comprise an abstract narrative arc, which moves evocatively from solitude to community, motion to rest, and near silence to sound and song.
Ending on a note of rebirth and regeneration, Five’s choreographed action and inaction demand the audience’s total surrender. This film is profoundly contemplative and serene, giving audiences the opportunity to embrace a different cinematic experience.
