Through The Olive Trees- Abbas Kiarostami -

Through the Olive Trees solidified Abbas Kiarostami’s reputation as one of the most innovative filmmakers of the late 20th century. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and received widespread international acclaim.

Through the Olive Trees is many things: a love story, a comedy of manners, a documentary about a film production, a meditation on class and tradition, a philosophical inquiry into the nature of reality. But above all, it is a film of radical empathy. Kiarostami loves his characters not in spite of their flaws but because of them. Hossein's desperate persistence is both comic and heartbreaking; Tahereh's silence is both frustrating and entirely understandable; the director's exasperation is both funny and deeply human. Through the olive trees- Abbas Kiarostami

[Where Is the Friend's House? (1987)] ▲ │ (Earthquake occurs; director returns) │ [And Life Goes On (1992)] ▲ │ (Behind-the-scenes reconstruction) │ [Through the Olive Trees (1994)] Plot and Metacinematic Structure But above all, it is a film of radical empathy

Kiarostami offers no resolution. He offers no subtitle explaining what happens. He offers only an ambiguity so profound it becomes a metaphor for existence itself. Did Tahereh finally smile? Did she say yes? Or is she running away forever? The distance is too great to know. [Where Is the Friend's House

It masterfully blurs the lines between and fiction , questioning the nature of "reality" in cinema.