Homework

Kiarostami sets his camera up in the yard of the Shahid Masumi primary school in Tehran and asks the children about one subject: homework. Who helps, who hits them, what punishment and reward mean, what happens at home at night. The film is almost entirely these interviews, with two fathers speaking as well. As the questions go on the subject moves off homework and somewhere else: parents who cannot read, poverty, violence at home. The children do not set out to say these things; they let them out while answering. Abbas Kiarostami wrote, directed and edited. It was shot on 16mm in early 1988, runs 86 minutes and is in Persian. It was produced by Kanoon, the institute for the intellectual development of children and young adults. It reached a wide audience internationally largely when it was included as a special feature with the Criterion Collection's release of the Koker trilogy. Who it is for: viewers curious about documentary method and about Kiarostami working with children. Who it is not for: anyone troubled by children who are visibly frightened in front of a camera. The film does not hide that unease and puts the director's own position into the frame.