# Certified Copy (2010 film)
**Certified Copy** (original title *Copie conforme*) is a 2010 drama film directed by [Abbas Kiarostami](https://www.edgepedia.org/abbas-kiarostami), his first feature made outside Iran, starring [Juliette Binoche](https://www.edgepedia.org/juliette-binoche) as a French gallery owner and the opera singer William Shimell as an English writer whose afternoon together in Tuscany turns into an ambiguous game about marriage, identity, and the difference between an original and a copy.[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/06/cinema-certified-copy.html) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28353-certified-copy) A French, Italian, and Belgian coproduction, it competed at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, where Binoche won the Prix d'interprétation féminine for Best Actress.[3](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/30617/certified-copy)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and screenplay | Abbas Kiarostami, original screenplay, with adaptation by Massoumeh Lahidji[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28353-certified-copy) |
| Production | France, Italy, and Belgium; 2010; 35 mm color, 1.85:1, Dolby SRD[3](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/30617/certified-copy) |
| Languages | French, English, and Italian, the first time Kiarostami made a film in foreign languages[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/06/cinema-certified-copy.html) |
| Runtime | 106 minutes (the French visa record lists 100 min, the Spanish qualification 102 min)[4](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/copie-conforme/) • [5](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/123494) • [6](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=220810) |
| Leads | Juliette Binoche (She) and William Shimell (James Miller), Shimell's first screen role[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28353-certified-copy) • [7](https://www.amcglobalmedia.com/2010/05/20/ifc-films-nabs-u-s-rights-to-kiarostamis-certified-copy/) |
| Cannes 2010 | In Competition; Prix d'interprétation féminine to Juliette Binoche[3](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/30617/certified-copy) |
| French release | 19 May 2010, distributed by MK2 Distribution[8](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/141830/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and themes
The story opens in a small village in southern Tuscany, where the English writer James Miller has just given a lecture on his latest book, which argues that the copy has worth because it leads us to the original and thus certifies its worth.[10](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/04/cinema-certified-copy-talk-reflect-reflect-talk.html) After the talk he meets a French woman who owns a local art gallery, and the two spend the afternoon driving through the countryside and visiting landmarks. Strangers they meet take them for a couple, and the woman starts a game in which she acts as though she were his wife; the man, at first hesitant, eventually goes along. Soon the viewer cannot tell where the game ends and the truth begins, or the reverse.[11](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/19/5797-certified-copy) [The Italian](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-italian) censorship review described the pair as a married couple of fifteen years whose marriage is in crisis, trying to recover it by returning to the places where they were once wed, until at a certain point the game ends.[12](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/copia-conforme/)
The film's central thesis about art, that copies are not merely inferior versions of originals, is applied to love, life, and human relationships. A scholarly analysis in *CINEJ Cinema Journal* reads the film as privileging the subjectivity of experience and locating value in individual interpretation rather than any one true or original meaning, while ultimately asking more questions than it answers and leaving the audience to make meaning for themselves.[13](https://cinej.pitt.edu/ojs/cinej/article/view/8/198) [The Criterion Collection](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-criterion-collection) describes the film as a reflection on authenticity, in art as well as in relationships.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28353-certified-copy)
## Production and background
Until *Certified Copy*, Abbas Kiarostami (born 1940, Tehran) had always worked in his own country, staying in Iran even after the Islamic Revolution, when many of his filmmaking peers left.[9](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2010/certified-copy-copie-conforme-by-abbas-kiarostami/) The film marked his first feature shot in [Western Europe](https://www.edgepedia.org/western-europe) and his first in a foreign language, or three: French, English, and Italian.[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/06/cinema-certified-copy.html) He chose to shoot in the Tuscan village of San Giminiano, and said that the change of place and language did not alter his artistic style: "even if the place and the language were different for me, the film and its characters were familiar."[9](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2010/certified-copy-copie-conforme-by-abbas-kiarostami/) He also stated that he had written the script free of any specific Eastern detail, wanting the characters and dialogues to be universal.[9](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2010/certified-copy-copie-conforme-by-abbas-kiarostami/)
**Origin of the story.** Kiarostami first met Juliette Binoche in 1996; when they met again years later in Paris, she said she wanted to work with him. His script grew out of an experience he recounted to her: he told her something about his past, she asked whether everything he had said was true, and he answered that none of the personal part of the story was. Binoche suggested that such a "real-false" tale was a perfect subject for a film.[1](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/06/cinema-certified-copy.html)
The film was produced by Marin Karmitz, Nathanaël Karmitz, Charles Gillibert, and Angelo Barbagallo, with Gaetano Daniele as executive producer. Luca Bigazzi was the director of photography and Bahman Kiarostami, the director's son, was the editor.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28353-certified-copy)
## Cast
The title roles are played by Juliette Binoche, an Oscar-winning French actress, and William Shimell, a British baritone known to opera audiences but making his onscreen debut.[7](https://www.amcglobalmedia.com/2010/05/20/ifc-films-nabs-u-s-rights-to-kiarostamis-certified-copy/) • [11](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/19/5797-certified-copy) The supporting cast includes Jean-Claude Carrière as the man at the square, Agathe Natanson as the woman at the square, Gianna Giachetti as the café owner, Adrian Moore as the son, Angelo Barbagallo as the interpreter, Andrea Laurenzi as the guide, Filippo Troiano as the groom, and Manuela Balsimelli as the bride.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28353-certified-copy)
## Release and reception
The film screened in [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2010, Kiarostami's thirteenth Festival participation, following thirty-nine films and one [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) (for *Taste of Cherry*, 1997).[9](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2010/certified-copy-copie-conforme-by-abbas-kiarostami/) It received the Prix d'interprétation féminine for Juliette Binoche, her first Cannes Best Actress Award.[3](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/30617/certified-copy) • [14](https://filmex.jp/2010/en/ss02.html) During the ceremony, accepting the prize, Binoche was visibly moved.[15](https://www.lemonde.fr/festival-de-cannes/article/2010/05/24/le-magicien-tim-burton-sauve-la-competition-un-palmares-au-poil_5976742_766360.html)
Release dates followed across Europe: France on 19 May 2010, Italy on 21 May, the United Kingdom on 3 September, Spain on 29 October, Portugal on 18 November, and the Czech Republic on 23 December.[8](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/141830/) In Spain, distributed by Wanda Visión, it earned €816,854.62 from 129,044 spectators.[6](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=220810) IFC Films acquired U.S. rights during the festival and released it through its IFC in Theaters day-and-date platform.[7](https://www.amcglobalmedia.com/2010/05/20/ifc-films-nabs-u-s-rights-to-kiarostamis-certified-copy/)
**Critical response.** Reception was divided. The Iranian cinema encyclopedia *Cinema Iranica* records that the film often received a less than positive response on release and in later commentary: Lisa Nesselson, writing after the Cannes premiere, found the execution "painfully awkward, forced and contrived," and Peter Bradshaw of *The Guardian* called it "persistently baffling, contrived, and often simply bizarre."[16](https://cinema.iranicaonline.org/article/certified-copy-2010-by-abbas-kiyarustami/) A Tehran Bureau essay published during the American release described it as a film more interesting to discuss than to sit through, noting that reviews were widely favorable but shy of passionate.[10](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/04/cinema-certified-copy-talk-reflect-reflect-talk.html) The Italian national film commission's review judged it a work of strong auteur character, more compact than Kiarostami's previous films, in which the encounter between original and copy becomes a metaphor for the difficulty of grasping what is true in everyday life.[12](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/copia-conforme/)
## Home video and later standing
The Criterion Collection issued *Certified Copy* on Blu-ray and DVD as Spine #612, in a director-approved special edition with a new high-definition restoration, a new interview with Kiarostami, the Italian making-of documentary *Let's See "Copia conforme"*, and Kiarostami's rarely seen 1977 film *The Report*, which deals with similar themes.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28353-certified-copy) Kiarostami followed the film with only one other fiction feature made abroad, *[Like Someone in Love](https://www.edgepedia.org/like-someone-in-love)* (2012), shot in Japan.[17](https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Agenda/PDF/20210519_kiarostami_brochure.pdf)
## References
1. [Cinema: Certified Copy, Tehran Bureau, PBS FRONTLINE (18 June 2010)](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/06/cinema-certified-copy.html)
2. [Certified Copy (2010), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/28353-certified-copy)
3. [Certified Copy, Unifrance (awards and technical details)](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/30617/certified-copy)
4. [Copie conforme, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/f/copie-conforme/)
5. [Copie conforme, fiche œuvre n° 123494, CNC Visas et Classification](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/123494)
6. [Copia certificada, Catálogo de Películas, ICAA (Spain)](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/es-es/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=220810)
7. [IFC Films Nabs U.S. Rights to Kiarostami's Certified Copy, AMC Global Media (20 May 2010)](https://www.amcglobalmedia.com/2010/05/20/ifc-films-nabs-u-s-rights-to-kiarostamis-certified-copy/)
8. [Copie conforme, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/fr/film/141830/)
9. [Certified Copy (Copie Conforme) by Abbas Kiarostami, Festival de Cannes (18 May 2010)](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2010/certified-copy-copie-conforme-by-abbas-kiarostami/)
10. [Cinema: 'Certified Copy': Talk, Reflect, Reflect, Talk, Tehran Bureau, PBS FRONTLINE (2011)](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/04/cinema-certified-copy-talk-reflect-reflect-talk.html)
11. [Certified Copy, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival programme](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/19/5797-certified-copy)
12. [Copia conforme, Commissione Nazionale Valutazione Film (Italy)](https://www.commissionefilmcei.it/film/copia-conforme/)
13. [Anna Maria McMurray, "Down the Rabbit Hole of Reality: Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy," CINEJ Cinema Journal 1.1 (2011)](https://cinej.pitt.edu/ojs/cinej/article/view/8/198)
14. [Certified Copy / Copie Conforme, TOKYO FILMeX 2010](https://filmex.jp/2010/en/ss02.html)
15. [Le magicien Tim Burton sauve la compétition : un palmarès au poil, Le Monde (24 May 2010)](https://www.lemonde.fr/festival-de-cannes/article/2010/05/24/le-magicien-tim-burton-sauve-la-competition-un-palmares-au-poil_5976742_766360.html)
16. [Certified Copy (2010), Cinema Iranica](https://cinema.iranicaonline.org/article/certified-copy-2010-by-abbas-kiyarustami/)
17. [Abbas Kiarostami rétrospective intégrale, Centre Pompidou brochure](https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Agenda/PDF/20210519_kiarostami_brochure.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2010 to 2014 › Romantic and coming-of-age drama films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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