At this point Kiarostami could film an old man sneezing and I’d call it a groundbreaking testament to minimalist cinema.

Homework is just kids talking about homework. What starts out as an inquisitive search as to why kids don’t do there homework slowly morphs into an investigation of positive and negative reinforcement, the lasting effects of punishment, and I think at it’s core: Iranian culture as a whole. I was caught off guard by how invested I was in the film, and it’s clear as day where Kiarostami got his inspiration for Where is the Friend’s House. 

The one element of the film I’m a bit unsure of is the constant cutaways to the camera man, often using the same…

HOMEWORK is a hurricane of devastation from my man Abbas. This thing is pretty heavy and uncomfortable and explicitly sad. For 86min we listen to interview after interview of children describing the burden of homework, the abuse they face at home and school, and the lack of positive reinforcement that would otherwise buttress their academic confidence. 

Behind their words a deeper story is being told. A story about a problematic national mentality, one that normalizes abuse and grooms a future generation for letdown and punishment. 

The most interesting thing about the doc is how transparent the camera and film crew are in probing the parent-child/teacher-student relationship. The presence of the camera does something to the way these kids respond, almost…

Kiarostami is outstanding at matching his movies form to their message. Whether it is the constrained monologues conveying isolation in Taste of Cherry, having people play themselves in Close-Up, there is always something about the approach that enriches the themes.

In Homework, the obvious facet to point to is having children talk about homework in their own words. This film is just Kiarostami asking people about homework (and, at points, wider education), his subjects mostly being children - young children. The real brilliance though is how he frames the interviews.

We have an oppressive, almost classroom like atmosphere. Kiarostami is framed as an inquiring teacher, with a camera operator pointing the lens straight at the students. As a viewer, we…

☆"It’s a film about homework."☆

Ah, the inspiration for Daft Punk's legendary debut album. I always wondered.

No, this is not that. It's better. Mašq-e šab ["Homework"] is Abbas Kiarostami's fantastic documentary from 1989, drawn from his own difficulties helping his son with the titular assignments. So, he did what any good father would: went to his kid's school and interviewed a bunch of boys about it, asking what sorts of issues they faced at school and at home, recorded them all and edited them down into a feature-length film.

This is why I don't have children. Also because I'm a garbage human being.

Made just after his first notable film, Where is the Friend's House?, this nonfiction piece alternates…

 — Is it a fictional film? 
 — No it’s a docu- I don’t know. We have no idea yet. 

Kiarostami é um gajo que genuinamente ama vídeo, nem falo de cinema, falo mesmo da magia toda do vídeo e este filme é a sua prova! Um filme onde envolve entrevistas a putos sobre os seus trabalho de casa e a sua vida em casa! Sorri tanto meu Deus, tão genuínos, tao simples, tao queridos, mas os putos têm os pais fodidos, coitados, levam todos nas trombas quando se portam mal o que torna numa situação tensa porque para eles castigo é logo envolvido com a violência, e os encouragements são descritos como só dizer “bom trabalho”, ou até tendo também…

Iranian Cinema is so Pure, there is no other Film Industry in the world that makes a film most realistically and purely that the Masters of Iranian Cinema does.

Now coming on to the film, whenever I go to my cousin's place and what I notice there gathers up my head. So, my cousin works, her father works, her mother works all day at the house but when I see them trying to get the 5-year-old child of my cousin to do his homework it leaves me pretty positive that this must be the hardest chore of their day, sometimes I have seen them pissed off at the poor kid, sometimes I have seen them bribing the kid, sometimes I…

At this point Kiarostami could film an old man sneezing and I’d call it a groundbreaking testament to minimalist cinema.

Homework is just kids talking about homework. What starts out as an inquisitive search as to why kids don’t do there homework slowly morphs into an investigation of positive and negative reinforcement, the lasting effects of punishment, and I think at it’s core: Iranian culture as a whole. I was caught off guard by how invested I was in the film, and it’s clear as day where Kiarostami got his inspiration for Where is the Friend’s House. 

The one element of the film I’m a bit unsure of is the constant cutaways to the camera man, often using the same…

Very much in the veins of The Traveler and Where is the Friend’s House?. I have come to the realization that I don’t relate to these movies as much as I do empathize with them. Obviously, I relate to the struggles of schooling and being a child, but on a very surface level compared to the emotional neglect and physical abuse depicted in these films. I was lucky enough to not have experienced this type of harmful childhood, but it is the emotional connection and understanding of the children that allow me to empathize with their feelings. 

There is a quote within the film that reads, “Teachers should adopt a new approach that stimulates students’ creativity in a measured way.…

“Our children are under intense pressure. Teachers seem to be taking things out on them, venting their frustration. At home, they have to deal with us, their ‘home teachers,’ who have no idea what to do and have absolutely no training. So we in turn submit the children to all this pressure. The result is a passive, fragile, vulnerable generation exposed to all kinds of pathologies and psychological problems. These children grow up in distress. They're pale and unhappy. What will become of them?”

A brilliant documentary from Abbas Kiarostami that exposes the issues of pressure and carelessness that plague the education system, as well as the negative effects that they have on both children and all future generations. This doc gives voices to children who wouldn’t normally have a platform, and it’s so important to hear…