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"24 Frames", the final feature by Abbas Kiarostami, is as delightful as it is surprising. The surprises begin with the fact that the Iranian master’s last work is, of all things, essentially an animated film. Comprised of 24 short films, each lasting roughly four and a half minutes, the movie makes use of elaborate computer-generated imagery to temporally “extend” still images—one an Old Master painting, the others photographs taken by Kiarostami.

The project, which the director worked on for three years prior to his death in July 2016, began with his observation that paintings and photographs alike show us only a split second in time, leaving us to imagine what came before and after. "24 Frames" does some of that imagining for us, and genially invites our imaginary participation in doing so.

Very few of these mini-movies involve people, and there’s no standard dramatic action or dialogue. Mostly, the images come from nature: we see birds, horses and other animals, in settings that range from seascapes to snowy mountainsides to quiet windowsills. The fact that there’s no usual storyline or characters, however, doesn’t mean there’s no narrative energy or appeal: each little movie seems to have its own dramatic arc, and part of the fun of watching it lies in seeing how each of these unfolds.

Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Country: Iran, France
Genre: Drama, Documentary

BD50, DVD9 | 1080i AVC, NTSC | 01:53:56 | 41 Gb + 7.22 Gb + 3% rec
Language: no dialogue, save for a several songs
Subtitles: English

Extras:
• New interview with director Abbas Kiarostami’s son Ahmad Kiarostami, who helped finish the film after his father’s death (9 min)
• New conversation between Iranian film scholar Jamsheed Akrami and film critic Godfrey Cheshire (10 min)
• New short documentary "Print: In Memory of Abbas Kiarostami" about the making of the film by Abbas Kiarostami collaborator Salma Monshizadeh (14 min)
• Trailer