Jackies Coogan & Cooper, Jodie Foster, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Mickey Rooney, Quvenzhane Wallis, Freddie Bartholomew, and Tatum O’Neal are just a handful of names we associate with the greatest of child actors. The master Kiarostami brings us a young Hasan Darabi to add to the top of that list.
— Jake Paltrow

Abbas Kiarostami’s first feature focuses on a boy in a provincial city so avid to get to Tehran to see a soccer match that he’ll lie to adults and cheat other kids. A quest film that’s also a study of youthful obsession, it’s filmed in edgy black and white with a quiet energy that matches its hero’s. The Traveler has an acridly ironic ending and one of the best performances by a child in Kiarostami’s early work. (Criterion)