Through The Olive Trees- Abbas Kiarostami _top_ (2026)

The story centers on (played by Hossein Rezai), a local mason-turned-actor, and Tahereh (Tahereh Ladanian), his co-star. In the world of the film, they are playing a married couple. However, in "real life" on the set, Hossein is deeply in love with Tahereh and has been repeatedly rejected by her family because he is poor and illiterate. The Koker Trilogy: Journeys of the Heart | Current

Abbas Kiarostami's 1994 film "Through the Olive Trees" is a poetic and contemplative masterpiece that weaves together the threads of love, loss, and longing in a small Iranian village. This cinematic gem is a testament to Kiarostami's unique storytelling style, which blurs the lines between reality and fiction, and invites the audience to reflect on the human condition.

He catches her at the edge of the olive grove. They stand close together. The camera is too far away to hear them; the sound design is just wind and the rustle of trees. We see Hossein gesturing towards the valley, towards the tents, towards life. Tahereh stands rigid.

This elaborate setup is not intellectual pretense. Kiarostami uses it to ask profound questions about authenticity. As the film progresses, the audience realizes that the "authentic" neorealism Kiarostami was famous for is itself a constructed performance. The actors are not just playing characters; they are playing public versions of their private selves, demonstrating Kiarostami's theory that "the fastest way to the truth is a lie".

This final shot is the key to Kiarostami’s entire universe. He refuses to be a god who closes the book. He is a humanist who opens a window. He understands that the most honest answer to the question of love, or life, or cinema is often: We cannot see clearly from here. The olive trees are in the way. The earthquake has thrown off our perspective. But we keep walking anyway. Through the olive trees- Abbas Kiarostami

The film is the third in a series set in Northern Iran's Koker region: Where is the Friend's Home? (1987) : A simple story about a boy returning a notebook. And Life Goes On (1992)

The trilogy began with Where Is the Friend's House? (1987), a deceptively simple tale of a schoolboy desperately trying to return his classmate's notebook before the boy is expelled. It continued with Life and Nothing More (1992), in which a filmmaker (a stand‑in for Kiarostami himself) returns to Koker after the earthquake to search for the child actors from the first film, only to discover a community refusing to surrender to despair. And then came Through the Olive Trees —a film that, rather than moving forward, burrowed sideways into a single, fleeting moment from the previous movie, expanding it into a profound meditation on love, class, tradition, and the very nature of cinematic truth.

Through the Olive Trees (Persian: زیر درختان زیتون, Zir-e Derakhtān-e Zeytūn ) is the final film in Abbas Kiarostami’s informal “Koker Trilogy,” following Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987) and And Life Goes On… (1992). Released in 1994, the film is a masterful exercise in cinematic self-reflexivity, blurring the boundaries between documentary and fiction, director and subject, actor and character. It won the prestigious Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director) at the Cannes Film Festival, cementing Kiarostami’s reputation as a leading figure of the Iranian New Wave.

: A "behind-the-scenes" look at the production of And Life Goes On , specifically expanding a brief four-minute scene involving a young couple. Plot and Thematic Core: Love Amidst the Rubble The story centers on (played by Hossein Rezai),

This, as Khatereh Sheibani writes in a comprehensive analysis for Iranica , is precisely the point. By the time Kiarostami made Through the Olive Trees , he was already globally celebrated as a purveyor of "authentic" neorealist films featuring amateur actors playing themselves. "With this context in mind," Sheibani argues, " Olive Trees was made to playfully and ironically question the premise of authenticity of 'Kiarostami style' reality". The film is nothing less than a deliberate deconstruction of its director's own reputation, a skeptical interrogation of the very notion that cinema can ever capture "real life" without immediately falsifying it.

Through the Olive Trees (1994), titled Zīr-e Derakhtān-e Zeytūn in Persian, is the final installment of Abbas Kiarostami’s celebrated Koker Trilogy . Set in the earthquake-stricken region of Northern Iran, the film is a masterful example of "meta-cinema," blending documentary realism with fictional narrative . Plot Overview

Kiarostami left the answer to the wind, reminding us that the most beautiful moments in life are the ones that cinema can never truly capture.

The rolling green hills and, of course, the olive trees, are not merely a backdrop; they are a character that witnesses the persistence of life and love, emphasizing the natural cycle that continues despite human tragedy. The Koker Trilogy: Journeys of the Heart |

Released in 1994 and nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Through the Olive Trees is the final installment of what critics have called Kiarostami's "Koker Trilogy"—though Kiarostami himself resisted the label, arguing that the three films were connected only by the accident of place, not by any deliberate plan. And what a place it was: the small, rural village of Koker in northern Iran, a community shattered by the devastating 1990 Manjil‑Rudbar earthquake that killed nearly 50,000 people and left twice as many injured.

Suddenly, in the far distance, among the green, the two white dots emerged.

For the entire duration of the shoot, we watch Hossein struggle. He pleads with her, he recites poetry, he argues that the earthquake that killed 50,000 people should have shattered the class barriers that keep them apart. He uses the film’s script as a Trojan horse to confess his actual feelings. Tahereh remains a silent, impenetrable wall of indifference.

Released in 1994, Abbas Kiarostami’s Through the Olive Trees ( Zire darakhtan zeyton ) stands as a towering achievement in world cinema. It marks the masterful conclusion to the director's acclaimed Koker Trilogy. The film seamlessly blends documentary reality with fictional narrative. Kiarostami creates a profound meditation on art, class, love, and resilience.

The film's origin is as remarkable as its structure. Kiarostami's Koker Trilogy was born from a real-life tragedy, the 1990 Manjil-Rudbar earthquake that killed over 50,000 people, including 10,000 children. The first film, Where Is the Friend's House? (1987), was a simple tale of childhood. The second, And Life Goes On (1992), was a docu-drama following a director searching for the young boys from the first film in the earthquake's aftermath. During the chaotic production of the second film, Kiarostami cast two local non-professionals, Hossein Rezai and Tahereh Ladania, in a small scene as newlyweds.