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Aroview: Juliette Binoche steals the company of an erudite author for an afternoon of conversation and consternation in this breezy, yet cerebral stroll through the Tuscan countryside from Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami.

Though easily Kiarostami’s most commercial arthouse offering, fans of the director’s eloquent, innovative narratives will find much to savour here, with his storytelling collapsing the distinctions between reality and fiction, art and imitation with masterful ease. Ironically (as the film’s dramatic roleplay suggests anything but), a perfect marriage of intellectual and aesthetic pleasures, with Binoche’s enthralling central performance – easily one of the best of her career – a fine artistic complement to Kiarostami’s unfailingly inventive direction.