DHAKA: Award-winning Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami has died in Paris aged 76.

He had been undergoing hospital treatment in France for cancer.

Kiarostami stayed in Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and made more than 40 films, including documentaries. He won the Palme D’Or, the top prize at Cannes, with his 1997 film Taste of Cherry.

But he shot his last two films outside the country, reports the BBC.

Kiarostami was hugely influential in world cinema. The French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard is reputed to have said: “Film begins with DW Griffith and ends with Abbas Kiarostami.”

He was the only Iranian to ever win the Palme D'Or who’s work was a breath of fresh air in international cinema.

BDST: 0943 HRS, JULY 5, 2016
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