Babek Ahmadpour
Acting
Biography
Babak Ahamadpour, born in 1979 (or 1358 in the Persian calender) in the village of Koker in Rudbar County, Gilan Province of Iran, is an Iranian boy who is very well known in Iranian cinema and cinephile circles as the main protagonist Ahmed Ahmadpour in Where Is The Friend’s directed by Abbas Kiarostami, which is widely considered one of the greatest films of Iranian and global cinema, alongside his brother named similarly Ahmad Ahamdpour who plays the character’s best friend Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh. He grew up with almost no exposure to media, and later recalled, “we had never seen television or a camera, and did not even know what film was”. In late-1986, Kiarostami had been taking a trip to the village of Koker and had selected him and his brother as the two leads for his film. They had no prior acting experience before the film and the film would be their only lead roles. Babak later said they simply recited Kiarostami’s lines without knowing they would become a film. He described the whole process of making the film deeply surreal. Part of what makes the film so loved is how natural the performances are. He and his brother make brief background appearances in the final film of Abbas Kiarostami’s Koker Trilogy titled Through The Olive Trees. They were interviewed by Houman Baba-Nouruzi in the 2018 documentary Tree Of Life.
Known For
An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.
Where Is The Friend's House?
After the earthquake of Guilan, a film director and his son travel to the devastated area to search for the actors from the movie the director made there a few years previously. In their search, they see how people who have lost everything in the earthquake still have hope and try to live life to the fullest.
Life, and Nothing More…
When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.
Through the Olive Trees
A documentary about Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami first aired on the French television series Cinema de Notre Temps.
Abbas Kiarostami: Truths and Dreams
A week after the death of Abbas Kiarostami, a film group travels to the location where the famous Koker trilogy was shot to see if the actors of the films and the people of the region know about Kiarostami's death or not.
And Kiarostami Goes On
A documentary that details the lives of Babak and Ahmad Ahmadpour 30 years after they starred as amateur child actors in Abbas Kiarostami's Koker Trilogy.