“The epicness of intimacy”: The movie Greta Gerwig calls “the perfect film”
There are few figures in the brightened realms of Hollywood to have mastered its many professions quite like Greta Gerwig. Whether penning some of the most memorable moments of contemporary cinema, piecing them together from the director’s chair, or delivering a rousing and emotive performance in front of the camera, Gerwig has consistently proven her prowess in the film industry.
Gerwig has announced herself as one of the key individuals in modern American cinema, notably with her directorial debut Lady Bird, the period drama Little Women and one of the biggest cinema events of 2023 in the shape of Barbie, with each showcasing Gerwig’s inner passion for cinema and commitment to detail.
Not only is Gerwig an acclaimed writer, actor and director, but she is also a huge fan of the cinematic medium itself, often waxing lyrical about the movies that have made the deepest impression on her. As far as her favourite movies go, it’s hard for her to look beyond Abbas Kiarostami’s 1987 Iranian drama Where Is the Friend’s House?.
“Where Is the Friend’s House? is the perfect film,” Gerwig once told Criterion. “It’s perfect. It feels effortless and it’s beautiful cinema. But it’s also so pleasurable.” Kiarostami made the Koker trilogy comprised of Where Is the Friend’s House?, And Life Goes On and Through the Olive Trees, all of which are “increasingly meta”, according to Gerwig.
The first in the trilogy, Where Is the Friend’s House?, tells of a kind schoolboy’s quest to find and return his friend’s school book from a neighbouring village so that the boy will not be expelled. Gerwig admitted that she would likely cry from just talking about the narrative, so moving it is.
“This little boy that we’re following goes on this journey,” she said. “He has to run up this hill to the other village to try and find his friend and then he meets all these people and they send him to the wrong places.” The director and writer proceeded to call the young boy, played by Babak Ahmadpour, “the most wonderful hero”.
What’s best about Where is the Friend’s House? for Gerwig, though, is that the film sees Kiarostami “perfectly capture the strangeness and the stakes of childhood and what’s terrifying about it and what matters in it.” The journey of the young boy is “the simplest”, and yet it means “absolutely everything”, showing the importance of the tiny details in our early lives.
In fact, Kiarostami’s film is the one that Gerwig recommends to everyone because she thinks that regardless of whether someone understands the intricacies or history of the cinematic medium, they will understand the simple narrative of the film and its themes. “It will touch you,” she said.
Going on to express her love for Kiarostami’s movie, Gerwig noted, “It’s about friendship and loyalty and these tiny moments of looking out for one another. He just has this face; it’s just this very simple task, this hero’s journey for him.” What Where Is the Friend’s House? represents for Kiarostami is “the epicness of intimacy.” The director signed off on her thoughts on the film, “These small interactions that end up meaning everything. You want so much for these kids, but what’s unfolding feels utterly real.”
Listen to Gerwig discussing one of her favourite movies of all time below.
