Rating: NN
ABC AFRICA (Abbas Kiarostami) Rating: NN
Cinematheque kicks off its Kiarostami retrospective Friday (May 3) with the Iranian filmmaker’s latest work, ABC Africa, a documentary examining the plight of Uganda’s more than 2 million orphans, many of whom are HIV-positive or have AIDS. This is trademark Kiarostami, a slice-of-life handheld travelogue. Yet we’ve seen these terrible images of suffering African children before, so Kiarostami’s study can’t help but feel a bit trite. This retrospective offers an opportunity to catch up on his great works, including Close-Up (Saturday, May 4), And Life Goes On (Tuesday, May 7) and The Wind Will Carry Us (Friday, May 3). See Cinematheque listings, this page, for complete schedule.