At first glance, Through the Olive Trees is a deceptive puzzle. It appears to be a simple, neorealist tale of a poor, illiterate stonemason named Hossein who is desperately trying to convince a young, educated woman named Tahereh to marry him. But this description is like calling Moby Dick a book about a whale. To watch Through the Olive Trees is to enter a hall of mirrors where the director, the actors, and the audience are all complicit in the act of “making believe.” To understand the film, one must understand its context. The Koker Trilogy began with Where Is the Friend’s House? (1987), a simple, heartbreaking story of a boy trying to return a notebook to his classmate in the rural village of Koker, Iran. It continued with And Life Goes On (1992), a meta-documentary following a director (played by Farhad Kheradmand) searching for the boy from the first film after the devastating 1990 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake.
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.
Kiarostami teaches us that the truth is not found in what the characters say, but in what they do when they think no one is looking—or rather, when they know everyone is looking. Through the olive trees, we do not see a resolution. We see a possibility. And in the cinema of Abbas Kiarostami, a possibility is infinitely more powerful than a certainty. Through the Olive Trees is streaming on The Criterion Channel and is available on Blu-ray. It is rated Not Rated (suitable for all audiences, though younger viewers may find its pace challenging). For those new to Kiarostami, it is recommended to watch Where Is the Friend's House? first, though Through the Olive Trees stands magnificently alone as a testament to the stubborn, beautiful, heartbreaking act of trying to turn life into art.
He runs ahead, turns around, and walks backward in front of her, still talking. She sidesteps him. They disappear behind a tree. They re-emerge. He continues his monologue. She continues to ignore him.
