FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"A Taste of Cherry" continues international film series at Bates

LEWISTON, Maine -- "A Taste of Cherry," Abbas Kiarostami's Palme d'Or-winning film about a desperate middle-age man who has decided to end his life, will be shown Saturday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. and Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. in Room 105 of the Olin Arts Center at Bates College. Admission is $5 for the film, sponsored by L/A Arts and the Bates College Student Film Board. Tickets may be purchased in advance by calling L/A Arts at 207-782-7228 or 800-639-2919.

In Farsi with English subtitles, "A Taste of Cherry" follows Mr. Badii, who drives through the hilly outskirts of Tehran in search of someone who will bury him if he succeeds in suicide or rescue him if he fails. He meets an assortment of characters Ñ Afghans, Kurds, Turks, prisoners of the desert, a soldier, a seminary student and a museum employee Ñ all who turn down his request.

"Kiarostami, like no other filmmaker, has a vision of human scale that is simultaneously epic and precisely minuscule," said Stephen Holden of The New York Times.

"A Taste of Cherry" is the second of seven films in the 1998-99 International Film Series. Next in the series will be "La Promesse," in French with English subtitles, directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne Saturday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 8, at 2 p.m. in Room 105 of the Olin Arts Center at Bates College.