Photographer Helen Levitt's short and deceptively simple film was a collaborative effort with fellow still photographer Janice Loeb and the critic and writer James Agee. Like much of Levitt's photographic work, the film attempts to capture the lives of working-class people by documenting the ordinary activities of an Upper East Side neighborhood in Manhattan. Most poignant are Levitt's candid views of children and the ongoing transformative drama that she reveals in the street. 

This is the first work in a trilogy of films that would bring Iranian director Kiarostami to international prominence. Set in a village in northern Iran, Where Is the Friend’s House? is the simple yet powerful tale of a young boy named Ahmad who discovers he has accidentally taken the notebook of a school friend who lives in a nearby village. Determined to locate his friend, Ahmad bravely journeys to places—both geographical and psychological—he has never ventured before.