Through The Olive Trees- Abbas: Kiarostami [2021]

Abbas Kiarostami’s Through the Olive Trees is a film that builds a universe out of a single, simple question: What does it mean to say the wrong thing to someone over and over again?

What follows is a static, long shot filmed from the director's camera position. We see an impossibly green hillside, a winding dirt path, and two tiny figures: Tahereh walking ahead, Hossein running to catch up. He reaches her. They walk together. He gesticulates, pleading. She ignores him. Through the olive trees- Abbas Kiarostami

The conflict between Hossein and Tahereh highlights rigid social structures. Tahereh's family values literacy and property over genuine affection. Hossein counters this with poetic logic, arguing that the literate should marry the illiterate, and the housed should marry the homeless, so everyone can complement one another. The Signature Master Shot Abbas Kiarostami’s Through the Olive Trees is a

Kiarostami’s aesthetic is defined by patience and minimalist precision. Working with cinematographer Hossein Djafarian, he uses long takes and wide shots that embed the characters deeply within their environment. He reaches her

Kiarostami constantly questions the filmmaker’s role. The director in the film is kind but manipulative, using Hossein’s real desperation to add authenticity to his fiction. At one point, he forces Hossein to repeat a simple line (“Good evening, sir. My wife and I are grateful to you”) over fifty times—not for technical perfection, but to wear down the actor’s ego. Meanwhile, Tahereh’s silence off-camera is her only form of agency. Kiarostami asks: does cinema exploit its subjects, or can it give them a voice?

Kiarostami left the answer to the wind, reminding us that the most beautiful moments in life are the ones that cinema can never truly capture.

The film is famously "meta," focusing on a film crew returning to the village of to shoot a scene for Kiarostami’s previous film, And Life Goes On . The central plot follows Hossein , a local mason cast as an actor, who uses the production as an opportunity to pursue Tahereh , a young woman who has consistently rejected his marriage proposals.