UPDATE: That was fast. This just started production in Brazil under the title “O Aroma da Pitanga,” which translates to “The Scent of the Pitanga.”
EARLIER: Some wild news in the arthouse world. Acclaimed Argentine filmmaker Lisandro Alonso is set to direct a remake of “Taste of Cherry” — the 1997 Palme d’Or-winning film by late Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. Furthermore, Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, fresh off a triumphant year with “The Secret Agent,” which included accolades and widespread critical acclaim, is attached to star in Alonso’s film.
That’s what Moura just confirmed on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast (via Clayton Davis).
While details are still emerging, the remake will no doubt tackle the mortality and existential yearning of the original. Alonso has built his career on quietly radical and deeply immersive works (”Jauja,” “Eureka”), and this adaptation will in all likelihood have Moura’s performance at its emotional center — in the same role indelibly played by Homayoun Ershadi in Kiarostami’s film.
Alonso’s interest in revisiting “Taste of Cherry” is quite curious, but aligns with his style. The original film’s famously enigmatic narrative — centering on a man driving across Tehran, wrestling with profound questions about life and death, looking for someone to bury him alive — left audiences with more questions than answers. Roger Ebert was famously negative towards the film, assigning Kiarostami’s film one star and dismissed it as “excruciatingly boring.”
To remake “Taste of Cherry” takes guts — a singular film that resists imitation by design, rooted as much in silence and ambiguity as in story. Also, how do you replicate Ershadi’s performance? Moura has screen presence to spare, but Ershadi had something Moura cannot fake: the feeling of a man already half withdrawn from the world, a face worn out by time.
In the meantime, don’t be surprised if Alonso’s actual next film, “La Libertad Doble,” which has already been shot, shows up at Cannes later this year.