Through the Olive Trees

A film crew has come to a village after the earthquake and is shooting there. Hossein, a stonemason, is hired as an actor and proposes to Tahereh, who plays opposite him. She has already refused him for being poor and illiterate; he keeps pressing during the filming. Abbas Kiarostami directed. It is the last part of the Koker trilogy: its subject is the making of the trilogy's second film, And Life Goes On, which was itself looking for the people from the first film, Where Is the Friend's House, after the 1990 earthquake. So this is a film about the shooting of a film. Tahereh is an orphan who lost her family in the earthquake. The final scene is cited on its own in film history: Hossein runs after Tahereh through the olive grove and the camera watches from very far away. What she answers is never stated. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes and won the Espiga de Oro at the 1994 Seminci festival in Valladolid. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 88 percent from 16 reviews with a 7.5 average. It was cited among the greatest achievements of cinema in the 2012 Sight and Sound poll. Who it is for: viewers who like films that blur fiction and reality, and Iranian cinema. Who it is not for: anyone wanting closure. It ends without answering its final question, which is precisely its subject.