This is a beautifully acted, slow-burning anti-action film. Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s role is to show you what’s happening; your job is to interpret it. It’s a Rorschach-like approach to storytelling, where the characters observe each other through glass, partitions and windows. A master of layers and distance, Kiarostami reveals the difference between looking at each other and seeing each other: there’s a vast gap between physical and emotional closeness.
Rin Takanashi plays Akiko, a student and escort trying to hide her profession from her controlling fiancé (Ryo Kase). When an evening with an elderly professor (Tadashi Okuno) extends into the next day, what follows are lengthy sequences of Takanashi, Kase and Okuno sitting with each other, in silence or amid the confines of small talk. All the while, references to mobile phones, faxes, answering machines and even car horns underscore the theme of communication and interruption.
An early, heart-breaking scene shows Akiko on the taxi journey over to her John, all the while listening to plaintive voicemails from her grandmother, asking to meet her. As Akiko passes the train station, she sees the elderly woman sitting alone, waiting. Watching through the taxi window, Akiko looks mournful, but drives on.
The title of Kiarostami’s masterful drama conveys a superficiality – an approximation of emotion. The director’s decision to subtly raise questions but present no answers may feel similarly unfulfilling to those unwilling to invest in the film. But communication goes both ways. This director transmits; the audience must choose to receive. Do.

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami. Starring Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno, Ryo Kase. 109 mins
4/5
In cinemas June 21