Cannes, France (CNN) - When he was dying in spring last year, Abbas Kiarostami knew he was leaving behind not only his family and friends, but also his final work, unfinished.
Iran's most celebrated filmmaker and noted polymath was three years into the self-financed project when he died aged 76.
Preview footage had enjoyed a small screening at the 2015 Marrakech Film Festival. But eight months later Kiarostami was gone, and it fell to his son Ahmad to finish his work.
On May 23, "24 Frames" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France -- the scene of Kiarostami's greatest triumph, winning the Palme d'Or in 1997 for "Taste of Cherry."
Comprised of 24 vignettes, each four-and-a-half minutes long, the film shows the director at his intersectional best, animating a series of still images -- largely his own photographs, taken over 40 years. Minimalist, often bleak, but always beautiful, it's a startling memento mori.
CNN sat down with Ahmad Kiarostami in Cannes to discuss the difficult task of finishing his father's work and his mission to preserve his father's legacy.
What inspired your father to animate still images?
He started with paintings. He said: "These painters, they painted one scene. But that's only one shot. I wonder what happens before and after?"
He started by animating "The Hunters in the Snow" by Pieter Bruegel ...
Then he moved on to do (animations) with the photos he had (taken). In the end, he ... had elements coming from different pictures, but he assembled the whole scene.
He made more than 40 frames. He didn't finish all of them; wasn't happy with some of them ... But the selection that you see here are his originals.
How were these vignettes created?
There was one guy who did the whole project (with Abbas), Ali Kamali -- he assembled the whole thing. He did all of them at home with a computer ... They did everything at home. I don't think they did anything in a studio, they just (had) a green screen (at home).
Was it hard to take on this project?
It was a very difficult process for many reasons. Emotionally, it's not easy -- that's a given. Fortunately, I had a very good friend who lives in Toronto and works in post-production. So he helped me manage the technical side of things and beyond that, just the fact that the person who was working on it was an old friend of mine, who knew my father, knew all his work, was very helpful.
The most challenging thing, for me, was trying to think how my father would decide things. Because this wasn't a fully-finished project ... I constantly had to remind myself that I'm not the one who's making decisions -- I'm making decisions on his behalf >>>
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