Where Is The Friend's House?

Ahmad, an eight-year-old boy in a village in northern Iran, discovers that he has brought home the school notebook of his classmate Mohammad by mistake. The teacher has already warned Mohammad that another missed homework assignment, written on loose sheets rather than in his exercise book, will mean expulsion. Realising what the loss of the notebook could cost his friend, Ahmad sets off on his own to the neighbouring village to return it. The address is vague, the way is long, and night falls while he searches.

Abbas Kiarostami wrote and directed this Iranian production, the eighth of the twenty-one features he directed in chronological order, following First Graders and preceding Homework. Babek Ahmed Poor plays Ahmad, with Ahmed Ahmed Poor as Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, alongside Kheda Barech Defai, Iran Outari, Ait Ansari and Sadika Taohidi among a credited cast of twenty-one. It runs eighty-three minutes and was released in July 1987.

On IMDb the film holds 8.1 out of 10 from roughly twenty-three thousand votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.9 from around four hundred and fifty. A critics' rating of 7.9 from eleven reviews places professional assessment close to the general audience response. The scale of voting on IMDb, far larger than on TMDB, indicates a wide international viewership for a small village drama.