#991: KIAROSTAMI, Abbas: And Life Goes On (1992)

KIAROSTAMI, Abbas (Iran)
THE KOKER TRILOGY
And Life Goes On [1992]
Spine #991
Blu-ray

Abbas Kiarostami first came to international attention for this wondrous, slyly self-referential series of films set in the rural northern-Iranian town of Koker. Poised delicately between fiction and documentary, comedy and tragedy, the lyrical fables in The Koker Trilogy exemplify both the gentle humanism and the playful sleight of hand that define the director's sensibility. With each successive film, Kiarostami takes us deeper into the behind-the-scenes "reality" of the film that preceded it, heightening our understanding of the complex network of human relationships that sustain both a movie set and a village. The result is a gradual outward zoom that reveals the cosmic majesty and mystery of ordinary life.

In the aftermath of the 1990 earthquake in Iran that left fifty thousand dead, Abbas Kiarostami returned to Koker, where his camera surveys not only devastation but also the teeming life in its wake. Blending fiction and reality into a playful, poignant road movie, And Life Goes On follows a film director who, along with his son, makes the trek to the region in hopes of finding out if the young boys who acted in Where Is the Friend's House? are among the survivors, and discovers a resilient community pressing on in the face of tragedy. Finding beauty in the bleakest of circumstances, Kiarostami crafts a quietly majestic ode to the best of the human spirit.

95 minutes

Color
Monaural
in Persian
1:66:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2019

Director/Writer

Abbas Kiarostami was 52 when he wrote and directed And Life Goes On.

Other Kiarostami films in the Collection:

#990: Where Is The Friend's House? (1987)
#519: Close-up (1990)
#992: Through The Olive Trees (1994)
#45: Taste Of Cherry (1997)
#612: Certified Copy (2010)
#708: Like Someone In Love (2012)
#956: 24 Frames (2017)

The Film

The saga continues. Farhad Kheradmand plays Kiarostami, as he and his son (Pouya Payvar, son of the DP Homayoun Payvar) search for Ahmad (from Where is the Friend’s House?), after the real-life 1990 earthquake.

As they drive along the highway, we see scenes of the actual earthquake damage. The father and son eventually veer off the main highway and try to make their way towards Koker, showing Ahmad’s photo to everyone they encounter.

In one of the film’s most stunning shots — a wide shot — the car (Kiarostami’s own car!) is struggling to make it up a steep hill. It keeps stalling out and — like Sisyphus — it seems like it will never make it!

Does he ever manage to find Ahmad?

Film Rating (0-60):

56

The Extras

The Booklet

Thirty-six page booklet featuring an essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire.

“A conventional film on its subject might begin with the director character learning of the earthquake, then making the decision to undertake his journey, or with titles or news footage detailing the disaster’s devastation. A prime example of Kiarostami’s way of decentering narrative (beginning a story in medias res, ending it before its natural conclusion), And Life Goes On opens, instead, with cars going through a highway tollbooth and their drivers exchanging comments with the attendant. One car contains a bespectacled, white-haired, never-named film director and his young son. These two are setting off into the earthquake area on a mission, but we are told nothing of this to begin with. Kiarostami simply launches into their journey, allowing us to piece together the facts surrounding it as we go along.”

Commentary

Featuring Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosenbaum, coauthors of Abbas Kiarostami.

The commentary is insightful, and the two take turns referencing biographical details about the filmmaker, such as his background in painting, graphic art; his love of classical and modern poetry; and the fact that he is no cinephile. Unfortunately, concerning a filmmaker as unique as Kiarostami, most of their comments are completely obvious to anyone who watches the entire Trilogy.

Abbas Kiarostami: Truths and Dreams

A 1994 documentary.

“In my opinion, whether documentary or fiction, it’s all one big lie we’re telling the viewer. I think our art consists in lying in such a way that the viewer believes it. Which part is documentary and which is made up is all part of the way we work. It’s not about the viewer. The important thing is that the viewer realize that we string together this series of lies.”

Interview

With scholar Hamid Naficy.

“The films of Abbas Kiarostami are extraordinary. Words cannot describe my feelings about them, and I simply advise you to see his films. When Satyajit Ray passed on, I was very depressed. But after seeing Kiarostami’s films, I thank God for giving us just the right person to take his place.” — Akira Kurosawa

Extras Rating (0-40):

35

56 + 35 =

91

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