ATHENS -- Abbas Kiarostami’s acclaimed 1987 film “Where Is the Friend’s House?”, a landmark of Iranian cinema and a production of Iran’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon), has screened at two open-air cinemas in Athens.
The film screened Saturday at Amiko Open-Air Cinema, with a second screening held on Sunday at Aniksis Open-Air Cinema. Both screenings were presented in Persian with Greek subtitles.
The Athens screenings are part of a renewed Greek theatrical run for the film that began Aug. 27, 2026, extending the life of one of Kiarostami’s most internationally recognized works to a new generation of audiences.
“Where Is the Friend’s House?” follows Ahmed, a young schoolboy who accidentally takes home his classmate’s notebook. Worried that his friend will be punished for failing to complete his homework, Ahmed sets out to find the boy’s home in a neighboring village and return the notebook.
Produced in 1987, the film established many of the qualities that would become hallmarks of Kiarostami’s cinema: an understated narrative, nonprofessional child actors, rural landscapes and a focus on seemingly simple events carrying broader moral and human implications.
The film explores friendship, responsibility and childhood, while using Ahmed’s journey to examine the relationship between children and the structures of the adult world.
“Where Is the Friend’s House?” was the first installment of Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy, followed by “And Life Goes On” (1992) and “Through the Olive Trees” (1994).