This November the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) brings Melbourne audiences, Shirin (2008), the most recent masterpiece by feted Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

Part of the Iranian New Wave of the late 60s, Kiarostami uses poetic dialogue and allegorical storytelling in order to deal with politics and philosophy. Since 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. It was 20 years after his ground breaking debut feature, Report (1977) that he was awarded the Palme d'Or at Cannes for Taste of Cherry (1997).

After premiering Shirin at last year's Venice Film Festival, Kiarostami's dramatic essay on spectatorship draws on the endless expressive potential of the human face. Shirin is ostensibly a film about women watching and responding to a film. However, beyond that it is a film exploring the very medium it is working within as it toys with the roles of performer and spectator.