{ "id": "epq7bw9ryc", "slug": "where-is-the-friends-house", "title": "Where Is the Friend's House? (خانه دوست کجاست؟)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s", "label": "Comedies of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s.comedy-dramas-of-the-1980s", "label": "Comedy-dramas of the 1980s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s.comedy-dramas-of-the-1980s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Where Is the Friend's House? (خانه دوست کجاست؟) is Abbas Kiarostami's 1987 Iranian film, first of the Koker Trilogy, about a schoolboy returning a classmate's notebook; Locarno Bronze Leopard winner.", "snippet": "Where Is the Friend's House? (خانه دوست کجاست؟) is Abbas Kiarostami's 1987 Iranian film, first of the Koker Trilogy, about a schoolboy returning a classmate's notebook; Locarno Bronze Leopard winner.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-the-1980s.comedy-dramas-of-the-1980s", "markdown": "# Where Is the Friend's House? (خانه دوست کجاست؟)\n\n**Where Is the Friend's House?** (Persian: خانه دوست کجاست؟, *Khāneh-ye dust kojāst?*) is a 1987 Iranian drama film directed and written by [Abbas Kiarostami](https://www.edgepedia.org/abbas-kiarostami), in which an eight-year-old schoolboy spends an afternoon trying to return a classmate's homework notebook to his home in a neighboring village. It was produced by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon), runs about 83 minutes, and is the first film of Kiarostami's Koker Trilogy.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28638-where-is-the-friends-house) • [2](https://cinema.iranicaonline.org/film/%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%AA-%DA%A9%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA/) It was the first of Kiarostami's films to gain significant attention outside Iran, and it is generally credited with helping begin a new period of international recognition for Iranian cinema.[3](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100001139/) • [4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=23809&pyear=2016&s1=294)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writer | Abbas Kiarostami; produced by Ali Reza Zarrin for Kanoon (Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults)[5](https://www.dreamlabfilms.com/where-is-the-friends-house/) |\n| Release and length | Iran, 1987; 83 minutes per Criterion and Cinema Iranica (some archives list 85 or 87 minutes)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28638-where-is-the-friends-house) • [6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/49966a7c-be06-5318-bb99-7a84988bd550/where-is-the-friends-house) |\n| Premise | Ahmed accidentally takes his friend Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh's notebook home and searches the neighboring village to return it, since the friend faces expulsion if he again fails to do his homework in it[2](https://cinema.iranicaonline.org/film/%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%AA-%DA%A9%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA/) |\n| Title source | A poem by the Iranian poet and artist Sohrab Sepehri, in which a traveler is told to ask a child \"Where is the House of the Friend?\"[4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=23809&pyear=2016&s1=294) • [7](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2024/06/05/where-is-the-friends-house/) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Farhad Saba; music Aminollah Hossein; editing Kiarostami[5](https://www.dreamlabfilms.com/where-is-the-friends-house/) |\n| Awards | Bronze Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival; Golden Leopard nomination; Special Jury Prize at the 5th Fajr Film Festival[8](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/where-is-the-friends-house/) • [9](https://www.filmdata.ir/movie/m772428397813) |\n| Standing | Ranked =157 in the 2022 Sight and Sound critics' poll and =72 in the directors' poll of greatest films[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/49966a7c-be06-5318-bb99-7a84988bd550/where-is-the-friends-house) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nAt the village school in Koker, the teacher warns Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh that if he again fails to do his homework in the correct notebook he will be expelled. That evening Ahmed, Nematzadeh's classmate and neighbor in the next village, discovers he has taken the notebook home by mistake. He slips out, telling his mother he is buying bread, and spends the rest of the day searching for his friend's house, asking directions from adults who variously help and mislead him.[5](https://www.dreamlabfilms.com/where-is-the-friends-house/) • [10](https://kiarostami.org/fa/filmography/where-is-the-friends-home) He does not find the house and returns home; the next morning he does his friend's homework in the notebook himself and brings it to school, saving Nematzadeh from punishment.[11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcq3Lnbx_go)\n\nThe story is told from the child's point of view, and the search doubles as a portrait of rural Iranian society and, in the words of the [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) synopsis, \"a touching parable about the meaning of personal responsibility.\"[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28638-where-is-the-friends-house) Commentators have also read the strict teacher and the boy's choice between obedience to elders and loyalty to a friend as a quiet study of authority and conscience.[3](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100001139/) • [12](https://petersonreviews.com/2025/11/12/where-is-the-friends-house-1987-movie-review/)\n\n## Production and style\n\nKiarostami shot the film in a small mountain town in northern Iran, using nonprofessional actors from the area.[4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=23809&pyear=2016&s1=294) • [8](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/where-is-the-friends-house/) The child Ahmed is played by Babak Ahmadpour and his friend by Ahmad Ahmadpour, with Kheda Barech Defai as the teacher, Iran Outari as Ahmed's mother, and Ait Ansari as his father.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28638-where-is-the-friends-house) The Busan festival program notes that the film already contains the style that became emblematic of Kiarostami: nonprofessional actors, a simple and smoothly unfolding story structure, and long-shot camerawork.[4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=23809&pyear=2016&s1=294)\n\nThe title comes from [Sohrab Sepehri](https://www.edgepedia.org/sohrab-sepehri)'s poem \"Address\" (نشانی), in which a traveler in a strange land is instructed to ask a child where the House of the Friend is; modernist Persian poetry was a lasting inspiration for Kiarostami.[4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=23809&pyear=2016&s1=294) • [7](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2024/06/05/where-is-the-friends-house/)\n\n## The Koker Trilogy\n\n*Where Is the Friend's House?* is the first film of what critics call the Koker Trilogy (or earthquake trilogy), followed by *[And Life Goes On](https://www.edgepedia.org/and-life-goes-on)* (1990) and *[Through the Olive Trees](https://www.edgepedia.org/through-the-olive-trees)* (1994). All three films depict the village of Koker and its region.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28638-where-is-the-friends-house) • [13](https://azamtaleghani.com/images/vije-namehpayameebrahim/payameebrahim/payameebrahim17/%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%85%20%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%DB%8C%D9%85%2017.pdf) The link to the second film is direct: days after the deadly 1990 Manjil-Rudbar earthquake, which killed about 40,000 people, Kiarostami traveled to the area ostensibly to find the two young actors of this film, and that search became the subject of *And Life Goes On*.[14](https://zamaaneh.com/radiocity/2010/10/post_630.html) • [13](https://azamtaleghani.com/images/vije-namehpayameebrahim/payameebrahim/payameebrahim17/%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%85%20%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%DB%8C%D9%85%2017.pdf) Kiarostami himself did not accept the trilogy label, saying instead that *And Life Goes On*, *Through the Olive Trees*, and *Taste of Cherry* (1997) form a trilogy about the value of life.[13](https://azamtaleghani.com/images/vije-namehpayameebrahim/payameebrahim/payameebrahim17/%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%85%20%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%DB%8C%D9%85%2017.pdf)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film won the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival and was nominated for the festival's Golden Leopard, and it took the Special Jury Prize at the 5th Fajr Film Festival in Iran.[8](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/where-is-the-friends-house/) • [9](https://www.filmdata.ir/movie/m772428397813) Kiarostami later called it one of the most widely seen films he made.[15](https://iranwire.com/fa/culture-and-arts/3940/) [Werner Herzog](https://www.edgepedia.org/werner-herzog) has named it among his favorite films.[16](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/where-is-the-friends-house/971450) In the [British Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-film-institute)'s 2022 [Sight and Sound](https://www.edgepedia.org/sight-and-sound) poll of the greatest films of all time, it ranked joint 157th among critics and joint 72nd among directors.[6](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/49966a7c-be06-5318-bb99-7a84988bd550/where-is-the-friends-house)\n\nThe film's afterlife extends beyond cinema. The single tree on the road at Koker, featured in the film, became a site of pilgrimage, and in 2024 a ceremony was held there in Koker Shamam near Rostamabad, Rudbar, with plans to light the road leading to the tree.[17](https://40522720.khabarban.com/) The architecture magazine *Koocheh* has run a recurring design competition named after the film, including a 2021 edition that asked entrants to produce an architectural reading of Sepehri's poem \"Address\" and a fifth edition in 2025 for a 121-square-meter site in the historic Chaharsuq neighborhood of Yazd.[18](https://sabatarch.com/2021/08/28/koochemag-competition/) • [19](https://www.jahanememari.ir/49327/) A 2026 feature film, *The Friend's House Is Here*, made secretly in Tehran by Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei, is explicitly not a remake of Kiarostami's film, though reviewers note its echo of the earlier film's concern for friends.[20](https://www.asianewsiran.com/fa/newsagency/41957/friends-house-is-here) • [21](https://loudandclearreviews.com/the-friends-house-is-here/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Where Is the Friend's House?, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/28638-where-is-the-friends-house)\n2. [خانه دوست کجاست, Cinema Iranica](https://cinema.iranicaonline.org/film/%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%AA-%DA%A9%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA/)\n3. [Where Is the Friend's House?, AFI Silver Theatre](https://silver.afi.com/movies/detail/0100001139/)\n4. [Where is the Friend's Home, Busan International Film Festival archive](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=23809&pyear=2016&s1=294)\n5. [Where is the Friend's House?, DreamLab Films](https://www.dreamlabfilms.com/where-is-the-friends-house/)\n6. [Where Is the Friend's House? (1987), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/49966a7c-be06-5318-bb99-7a84988bd550/where-is-the-friends-house)\n7. [Where Is the Friend's House? BFI Southbank programme notes](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2024/06/05/where-is-the-friends-house/)\n8. [Where Is the Friend's House?, Film at Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/where-is-the-friends-house/)\n9. [خانه دوست کجاست؟, Filmdata](https://www.filmdata.ir/movie/m772428397813)\n10. [خانه دوست کجاست, Kiarostami Foundation](https://kiarostami.org/fa/filmography/where-is-the-friends-home)\n11. [خانه دوست کجاست, IranMovi (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcq3Lnbx_go)\n12. [Where Is the Friend's House? (1987) review, Peterson Reviews](https://petersonreviews.com/2025/11/12/where-is-the-friends-house-1987-movie-review/)\n13. [پیام ابراهیم، شماره ۱۷ (مهر و آبان ۱۳۹۵)](https://azamtaleghani.com/images/vije-namehpayameebrahim/payameebrahim/payameebrahim17/%D9%BE%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%85%20%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87%DB%8C%D9%85%2017.pdf)\n14. [عباس کیارستمی، به دنبال زندگی, رادیو زمانه](https://zamaaneh.com/radiocity/2010/10/post_630.html)\n15. [خداحافظی با مردی که عینک تیره و ذهنی روشن داشت, IranWire](https://iranwire.com/fa/culture-and-arts/3940/)\n16. [Where is the Friend's House?, Eye Filmmuseum](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/where-is-the-friends-house/971450)\n17. [از درخواست ثبت معنوی لوکیشن «خانه دوست کجاست؟», ایسنا](https://40522720.khabarban.com/)\n18. [فراخوان مسابقه معماری \"خانه دوست کجاست\", ساباط](https://sabatarch.com/2021/08/28/koochemag-competition/)\n19. [فراخوان مسابقه طراحی معماری خانه دوست کجاست کوچه ۱۴۰۴, جهان معماری](https://www.jahanememari.ir/49327/)\n20. [فیلم خانه دوست اینجاست؛ داستان، بازیگران و نمایش‌های تازه, آسیا نیوز](https://www.asianewsiran.com/fa/newsagency/41957/friends-house-is-here)\n21. [The Friend's House Is Here: Film Review, Loud and Clear Reviews](https://loudandclearreviews.com/the-friends-house-is-here/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of the 1980s › Comedy-dramas of the 1980s*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/where-is-the-friends-house", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/where-is-the-friends-house.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Where Is the Friend's House? (خانه دوست کجاست؟)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/where-is-the-friends-house. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Where Is the Friend's House? (خانه دوست کجاست؟)](https://www.edgepedia.org/where-is-the-friends-house)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/where-is-the-friends-house](https://www.edgepedia.org/where-is-the-friends-house). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Where Is the Friend's House? (خانه دوست کجاست؟)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/where-is-the-friends-house. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Where Is the Friend's House? is Abbas Kiarostami's 1987 Iranian film, first of the Koker Trilogy, about a schoolboy returning a classmate's notebook; Locarno Bronze Leopard winner." }