Film

Certified Copy

An English writer and a French antiques dealer spend an afternoon in Tuscany discussing love, authenticity, and the fakes in a museum — and somewhere in the conversation their relationship quietly rewrites itself, sliding from strangers into what looks like a marriage of fifteen years. Kiarostami's puzzle box is gorgeous, talky, and deliberately unresolved. For people who like their romances argued, not declared.

TMDb rating7.0

If you liked this

Before Sunset2004

Two people talk for eighty minutes on the streets of Paris and it lands harder than most films manage in two hours. Same real-time intimacy, same sense every line could be the whole relationship.

But Almost entirely dialogue with barely any plot — if you need incident, this will feel like eavesdropping on strangers.

Before Sunset poster

Scenes from a Marriage1974no page yet

Bergman's forensic, unflinching look at a marriage coming apart in real conversations, not dramatic confrontations. It asks the same question Certified Copy does: what's left of intimacy once the performance stops.

But Long, Swedish, emotionally punishing — this is a serious sit, not a cosy watch.

Marriage Story2019

A couple dissected with tenderness and brutal fairness on both sides. Like Certified Copy, it's less interested in blame than in how two people narrate the same relationship completely differently.

But The screaming-match scene is famous for a reason; it's an emotionally exhausting watch if divorce is close to home.

Marriage Story poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Journey to Italy1954

Rossellini's couple-touring-Italy structure and its interest in how travel exposes a relationship's fault lines is the direct template Kiarostami was answering with Certified Copy.

The film Kiarostami has cited as a direct ancestor: a married couple driving through Italy, their relationship fraying in real locations, blurring performance and documentary decades before anyone called it arthouse.

But Slow by any modern measure, and its gender politics are frankly of 1954 — patience and historical goodwill required.

Journey to Italy poster
More like this (8)

Blue Valentine2010

Cuts between the beginning and end of a marriage, letting you feel the gap between who two people were and who they became — exactly the temporal slippage Certified Copy plays with.

But Bleak and nonlinear; it withholds hope almost entirely, which some viewers find punishing rather than moving.

Blue Valentine poster

A Separation2011

Farhadi, working in the same Iranian tradition Kiarostami came from, builds a marriage-and-morality drama where everyone's version of events is sincere and incompatible.

But Involves a court case and shifting testimony that demands close attention — not a film to half-watch.

A Separation poster

Columbus2017

Two near-strangers wander a small town talking about architecture, family and what's real versus built — quiet, elegant, and full of the same conversational drift Certified Copy thrives on.

But Extremely slow and dialogue-driven; if you want plot momentum, this will test your patience.

Columbus poster

The Souvenir2019

A young filmmaker's relationship blurs with the film she's making about it, questioning what's authored versus authentic — a very different texture but the same obsession with copies of feeling.

But Deliberately elliptical and emotionally opaque; some will find the central relationship frustrating rather than compelling.

The Souvenir poster

Vicky Cristina Barcelona2008no page yet

Foreigners abroad, art, romance, ambiguous connections — a lighter, warmer cousin to Certified Copy's tourist-seduced-by-Europe premise, with Woody Allen's dry wit instead of Kiarostami's rigour.

But Considerably breezier and less interested in ambiguity — don't expect the same philosophical weight.

The Trip to Italy2014

Two Englishmen bicker and impersonate each other across Italy while eating extraordinary food — a comic, meta echo of the tourists-talking-through-Italy setup, with real charm underneath the jokes.

But Much broader and funnier than Certified Copy; if you wanted more melancholy ambiguity, this plays it mostly for laughs.

The Trip to Italy poster

F for Fake1973

Certified Copy's entire premise — that authenticity might be a performance anyone can convincingly fake — is here turned inside out as an actual documentary about forgery and truth.

Orson Welles's gleeful documentary-essay about art forgers and his own reputation as a hoaxer, dismantling the very idea of an original versus a copy while grinning the whole time.

But No conventional plot or characters — it's a lecture disguised as a magic trick, and some will just see the lecture.

F for Fake poster

Married at First Sight2014no page yet

Both stage a relationship whose 'realness' is uncertain from the start and ask whether acting married can, over time, simply become being married.

Strangers legally marry on day one and try to build real intimacy under cameras — an unscripted, shameless version of the exact question Certified Copy asks: can enough performance become the real thing?

But It's produced-for-drama reality television with none of the restraint, ambiguity, or intelligence of Kiarostami's film.

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Close-Up, Before Sunrise, Cléo from 5 to 7, Journey to Italy, Before Sunset