THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES Movie Review

Under the Olive Trees
Zire Darakhtan Zeyton

This third in a trilogy of films about village life by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami concerns the production of a film about the making of the trilogy's second film, And Life Goes On. The director of the film-within-the-film is a thinly veiled portrayal of Kiarostami, and he's portrayed by the actor Mohamad Ali Keshavarz. (Take it from me—it all makes sense on the screen.) The director of the film-within-the-film, filming in an earthquake-ravaged village, discovers that the young bricklayer playing the bridegroom in his film is actually in love with the local woman who's playing the bride. However, she's turned down his real-life marriage proposal, feeling that the uneducated man is not of her social class. As is evident here and in the final sequence of his great Taste of Cherry, Kiarostami is fascinated by the convergence of cinema and real life, and in Through the Olive Trees he dares us to clearly identify the dividing line between them. The more we try, the more we realize how fully our lives have melded with the movies that we live and breathe. Kiarostami's films are not for the attention-span challenged, but their rewards are considerable; this is a memorable, quietly profound human comedy about the universal longings for acceptance, love, and creativity.

NEXT STOP … Where Is My Friend's House?, And Life Goes On, Day for Night

1994 (G) 104m/C Hossein Rezai, Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Taherek Ladania, Zarifeh Shivah; D: Abbas Kiarostami; W: Abbas Kiarostami; C: Hossein Jafarian, Farhad Saba. Nominations: Independent Spirit Awards ‘96: Best Foreign Film. VHS NYR