Through The Olive Trees- Abbas Kiarostami May 2026
Abbas Kiarostami’s 1994 masterpiece Through the Olive Trees is a film where the boundaries between art and life completely dissolve. Set in the aftermath of the devastating 1990 earthquake in Northern Iran, the film follows a local bricklayer named Hossein who lands a role in a movie, only to find himself acting opposite Tahereh—the real-life object of his unrequited love.
Cinematography and Style
The Lovers at the Threshold
When the final frame fades to black, we are left not with a story, but with a feeling. The feeling of wind through the branches. The feeling of rubble underfoot. The feeling that, somewhere, far away, two people are walking, and maybe, just maybe, one of them is about to turn around. Through the olive trees- Abbas Kiarostami
The camera holds. The screen goes black. The feeling of wind through the branches
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. The camera holds
The central drama unfolds between two of these amateur actors: Hossein (Hossein Rezai), a poor, illiterate mason, and Tahereh (Tahereh Ladanian), a well-off, literate young woman who lost her parents in the earthquake. In the film-within-the-film, they are playing a newlywed couple. In reality, Hossein has long been in love with Tahereh and wishes to marry her, but she refuses to even speak to him, citing their differences in class, education, and property.