An award-winning film made by a controversial Iranian filmmaker will be shown at Ohio State Saturday.The Wexner Center will present a special advance screening of the Abbas Kiarostami film ‘Taste of Cherry.’ Columbus was supposed to be Kiarostami’s first U.S. stop on a six-city tour to promote the film. Kiarostami was scheduled to introduce the film and hold a discussion with a sold-out audience; however, he will no longer be able to make his trip to the United States due to illness.Abbas Kiarostami, who has made over 60 films since the late 1960s, won the prestigious Palme d’Or award for his film ‘Taste of Cherry’ at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Guidance almost didn’t let the film out of the country because the film deals with the controversial subject matter of suicide. The ministry is a government agency that must approve all works of art in Iran, said associate professor of sociology at Ohio Wesleyan, Akbar Mahdi.’Due to religious restrictions, certain films dealing with certain subject matters are not permitted to be shown in Iran,’ said Dave Filipi, associate film curator at the Wexner Center.One of those banned films in Iran is ‘Taste of Cherry.”The religious conservatives (in Iran) didn’t like the idea that he made a movie about suicide,’ said Reza Reyazi, an active member of central Ohio’s Iranian Cultural Society.However, not all of Kiarostami’s films are banned in his country. He is a respected director whose films draw on life experiences, Mahdi said. Kiarostami chooses to use amateur actors in the most normal settings and natural ways.’He’s not generally political,’ Mahdi said. ‘He tries to reach a level beyond politics, a much deeper level, a human level. In more or less every one of his films the question of life is central.’The way that Kiarostami portrays life in his films is unique, Mahdi said. Rather than filming car crashes and bank robberies, he deals with incredibly important every day issues like friendship, life and death. In his films, Kiarostami deals with issues that are almost too subtle for most American cinema.’As a director, he has managed to communicate something and it is clearly something that has managed to cross boundaries,’ Reyazi said. ‘(That is) something that happens with great artists, which he happens to be.’ Friday the Wexner Center will present the Kiarostami film ‘Close-Up.’ Saturday’s screening of ‘Taste of Cherry’ will be preceded by a free screening of ‘The Key,’ written by Kiarostami. For more information call the Wexner Center ticket office.