Poetic Realism and Children’s Altruism in Abbas Kiarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s House?

Abstract

This article examines poetic realism and ethical responsibility depicted in Abbas Kiarostami's film Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987). It explores Kiarostami's minimalistic storytelling, which embodies social ethics and human connection underneath the poetic framing. The film is treated as a visual text whose key emphasis is placed on observational cinematography, minimalistic editing, natural settings, and the use of non-professional actors. To elucidate, Andre Bazin's film theory and Emmanuel Levinas's ethics and the face concept have been used to define poetic realism using the child’s perspective. The finding suggests that, through long takes and mundane encounters, altruism appears as a lived and ongoing process rather than a dramatic act. The film offers a hopeful vision of moral agency grounded in simplicity and sincerity. Kiarostami thus reminds viewers that moral responsibility does not originate in grand gestures or abstract principles but in small, compassionate acts enacted within everyday life.