Iranian filmmaker and poet Abbas Kiarostami was an important figure in 20th-century film history. In 1969, he set up Kunan’s film department, which was then called the Center for the Intellectual Development of Child and Adolescent. Many of the films from that period, including  Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987) and Homework (1988), are primarily set in schools and classrooms. His first educational films laid the foundation for his future style of filmmaking.

Recess is one of Kiarostami’s very first short films. We see a boy being punished at school for breaking a window. When he joins a group of schoolmates playing football, he disrupts the fun by stealing the ball and running away. Eventually, he drifts aimlessly along a busy highway.

This small film hints at more significant underlying stories. For the first time in Kiarostami’s oeuvre, it introduces the object of heart-stopping desire, a motif crucial in many of his feature films.