Through the Olive Trees

Abbas Kiarostami made Where is My Friend's House? in 1987 in the remote provins of Koker in Iran. Five years later, following an earthquake, he returned to make Life and Nothing More. In Through the Olive Trees - the final part of the trilogy - he documents how the shooting of Life and Nothing More affected the local people.

The young bricklayer Hossein is overjoyed to play against the neighbouring girl and love of his life - Farkhonde. Her mother and father have been against their marriage all along. However, they died during the earthquake and now it is her grandmother who puts a stop to it. Hossein is uneducated as well as homeless. But he does not give up but continues to fight against all odds.

Kiarostami is the humanist who becomes deeply involved in people's lives. He prefers to work with non-professional actors. He improvises around an idea, without a screenplay. He frequently rearranges the shooting schedule in order to fit the mood of the team and the actors. A time-consuming method, but Kiarostami loathes traditional methods of direction.

Maybe that is why he has the unique ability to capture the fascinating simplicity of everyday events and bring out the uniqueness within the characters. With his films - and in particular with Through the Olive Trees - he wants to show the difference between illusion and reality and by doing so show that there is a fine line between fiction and documentaries.