Where Is the Friend's House? Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Khane-ye doust kodjast" or "Where is the Friend's Home?" or "Where is the Friend's House?")

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
USA 1987

The first film in Abbas Kiarostami’s sublime, interlacing Koker Trilogy takes a simple premise—a boy searches for the home of his classmate, whose school notebook he has accidentally taken—and transforms it into a miraculous child’s-eye adventure of the everyday. As our young hero zigzags determinedly across two towns, aided (and sometimes misdirected) by those he encounters, his quest becomes both a revealing portrait of rural Iranian society in all its richness and complexity and a touching parable about the meaning of personal responsibility. Sensitive and profound, Where Is the Friend’s House? is shot through with all the beauty, tension, and wonder a single day can contain.

***

Before he captured the top prize at Cannes for A Taste of Cherry, Abbas Kiarostami made three films set in the northern Iranian cities of Koker and Poshteh which became known as his "Earthquake Trilogy." Where is the Friends Home? is the first of these and opens in an unkempt Koker classroom where a browbeating teacher informs young Nematzadeh (Ahmed Ahmed Poor) of an impending expulsion as his 3rd infraction of having incomplete homework. Our plot has begun. Both engaging and unassuming, this is a film of classic depth by Kiarostami - one of his best.... much better experienced than discussed.

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 1st, 1987 (Fajr Film Festival)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

InSight Films - Region 1- NTSC vs. Criterion - Region 'A' / 'B' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		Also available on Blu-ray in the UK by Criterion in September 2019:
Distribution	InSight Films - Region 1 - NTSC	Criterion Spine #990 - Region 'A' / 'B' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:19:48	1:23:26.835
Video	1.52:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.29 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 48,771,954,705 bytes Feature: 25,171,980,288 bytes Video Bitrate: 36.08 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate :
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	Farsi (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)	LPCM Audio Persian 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English (burned-in)	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: InSight Films Inc. Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.52:1 Edition Details: • "Where is the Friend's Home" Screensaver • MP3 music from the closing credits accessible on DVD-Rom • 30 Images from the film DVD Release Date: April 28th, 2004 Keep Case Chapters: 10	Release Information: Studio: Criterion 1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 48,771,954,705 bytes Feature: 25,171,980,288 bytes Video Bitrate: 36.08 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Homework (1989), a feature-length documentary by director Abbas Kiarostami, newly restored (1:17:32) • Conversation from 2015 between Kiarostami and programmer Peter Scarlet (1:07:35) The Koker Trilogy Blu-ray package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by Cheshire. Blu-ray Release Date: August 27th, 2019 Custom Blu-ray Case Chapters 14

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (July 2019): Criterion have transferred Abbas Kiarostami's "Where Is My Friend's House?" to Blu-ray as part of their 3-disc Koker Trilogy Blu-ray set that also includes "Through the Olive Trees" and "And Life Goes On". It is advertised as a "New 2K digital restoration" and for the most part, looks quite impressive. The only real noticeable issue is due to some visible print damage, resulting in a handful of shots appearing to flicker (this is not apparent in any captures I was able to take, though if you focus on the white walls in many scenes, you will see said flickering) with some frame-specific vertical scratches or marks. Despite that caveat, there is a giant leap in detail over the previous SD version that Gary reviewed over 15-years ago. The film's colors are of a somewhat muted palette, some teals do show up here, though this seems to be a more faithful rendering than the previous DVD. This is a dual-layered Blu-ray with one of the most maxed-out bitrates we have ever seen. Impressive.

The film's original uncompressed Persian linear PCM 1.0 track 24-bit in the original Farsi. Amine Allah Hessine is credited with composing the music for the film (his only film composure.) There are optional (new translation) English subtitles on this Region 'A' or 'B' Blu-ray from Criterion.

There are a few extras on this Blu-ray disc, starting with "Homework" (1989), a feature-length documentary by director Abbas Kiarostami, newly restored for this release. A title card before the film says "Digitized in 4K and restored in 2K from the original 16mm image negative and sound negative by L'immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Paris and Bologna, 2018. The film was shot just after "Where is the Friend's House?". This film has director Kiarostami interviewing parents and children at the Martyr Masumi Grade School in Tehran. Also here is "Abbas Kiarostami", shot in 2015 in Toronto. Programmer Peter Scarlet interviews the director about his life and career. Live translation is provided by Massoumeh Lahidji. The Koker Trilogy Blu-ray package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by Cheshire.

As Criterion states, "Abbas Kiarostami first came to international attention for this wondrous, slyly self-referential series of films set in the rural northern-Iranian town of Koker. Poised delicately between fiction and documentary, comedy and tragedy, the lyrical fables in The Koker Trilogy exemplify both the gentle humanism and the playful sleight of hand that define the director’s sensibility. With each successive film, Kiarostami takes us deeper into the behind-the-scenes “reality” of the film that preceded it, heightening our understanding of the complex network of human relationships that sustain both a movie set and a village. The result is a gradual outward zoom that reveals the cosmic majesty and mystery of ordinary life." "Where is the Friends House" is an essential film to finally have on Blu-ray.

Colin Zavitz

***

ON THE DVD: Firstly, yes the image is a little soft, but you must accept the deplorable condition this print (one of the few available) was in. You can trust me that this is far superior to ANY VHS copies of this film that I have seen. I am quite impressed with this first offering from InSight Films. This is a real step forward in offering some classic world cinema films on DVD that have, until now, remained buried in decrepit prints and pirated copies. Not only have they anamorphisized the 1.52 aspect ratio image without a hitch, the sound is likewise been cleaned up, yet not altered from its original 2 track mono. Bravo InSight Films!