The Heart of a Woman, And Other Poems

Abbas Kiarostami has spent his incomparable career exploring the spaces that separate illusion from reality and the simulated from the authentic. At first, his extraordinary and sly Like Someone in Love, which finds the Iranian director in Tokyo, may appear to be among his most straightforward films. Yet with this simple story of the growing bond between a young student and part-time call girl and a grandfatherly client, Kiarostami has constructed an enigmatic but crystalline investigation of affection and desire as complex as his masterful Close-up and Certified Copy in its engagement with the workings of the mercurial human heart.

The Swedish mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter is among the most versatile singers on today's scene, recording and performing opera of various eras and in various languages, art song, oratorio, rock, pop, and jazz. As a song recitalist, collaborating with pianist Bengt Forsberg, she has specialized in unusual and original programming. Von Otter was born in Stockholm on May 9, 1955. Her father was a Swedish diplomat, and her childhood was divided among stints in several countries; she mastered multiple languages as a child.