The Traveler

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

1974 / 74min / DCP

The all-consuming monomania of footy fandom is at the center of Kiarostami’s first full-length feature, in which Qassem, a 12-year-old from the provincial city of Malayer, is determined to see the Iranian national team play a match some 150 miles away in Tehran, and will stop at nothing—including truancy, fraud, and petty larceny—in order to achieve his dream. “A quest film that’s also a study of youthful obsession, it’s filmed in edgy black and white with a quiet energy that matches its hero’s. The Traveler has an acridly ironic ending and one of the best performances by a child in Kiarostami’s early work.” —Godfrey Cheshire

Distributor: Janus Films

Part of The Art of Soccer