CERTIFIED COPY (COPIE CONFORME) World Cinema

An art scholar on a promotional tour of Italy for his new book is taken on an impromptu excursion by a local admirer He’s English, unflappable and self-possessed She’s French, flustered and inquisitive. Over the course of a single, sun-soaked Tuscan afternoon they wander through rustic villages, engaging in constant, unassuming dialogue about the nature of originality. Continually interrupted by their cell phones – she’s the mother of a puckish pre-teen -the pair imperceptibly shifts from behaving like cordial strangers to inhabiting the roles of a lovelorn couple Abbas Kiarostami’s first feature film produced outside of his native Iran maintains the director’s customary attention to detail, spellbinding restraint and an immersive sense of place. Shooting on location with two supple lead performers – William Shimell is a baritone by trade while Juliette Binoche gives one of her most startling knife’s-edge performances – Kiarostami maintains his stature as cinema’s great poet of the ephemeral.