Life and Nothing More...

I consider the three films that make the ‘Koker Trilogy' as a single body of work and so give them the same rating. A contemplative road trip through earthquake-ravaged rural Iran on the way to Kokor, and thus also a material and conceptual road trip through ‘Where is the Friend's House?'. Kiarostami brilliantly shows the mortal ways in which we respond to what seem to us divine tests of our will. As well as revealing/constructing the intimate intertwining of film and reality.

Really established Kiarostami's visual signature exemplified by long POV driving shots and shots of the rugged Iranian mountainous landscape. Like neo-realist films, it deals with poverty and social disaster, but it's more philosophical than outwardly political, which distances us from the tragedy yet also allows us to see its consequences more clearly. It's a warm view of life that showcases human resilience in the face of great hardship and loss, and it ends on a stunning long take.

leave it to kiarostami to make an actually good movie about earthquakes. and cinema. of course.

Even among the greatest tragedies, life goes on, and we must go on with it...but seriously is he gonna get up that hill?? The suspense is killing me.

A beautiful and slow film about how people move on after a serious earthquake. It's told in a very charming way through a father and son road trip. In the devastated cities they pass on their way they randomly meet different people, and we get the story told through them. The visual language is very uniqe, and especially the heavy use of POV was brilliant.

Scotland didn't score though. Brazil won 1-0.

Aslında 90 verecekken, filmi kendi tahmini gerçekliğimle uyuşmayacak kadar iyimser gördüğüm için buçuktan 9 verdim. Yaşamın değerine biraz abartılı bir övgü var, fazla umut pompalıyor. Hiç mi isyan eden insan olmaz, hiç mi bir salıvermişlik, kabullenmemişlik baş göstermez? Böylesi büyük bir afet ve sefalette, halâ bu kadar incelik, nezaket, iyilik... Biraz yalan mı ne? Ama yine de ustaca çekilmiş, sade anlatımı, doğal diyalogları ile tam bir Kiarostami filmi. Ve tabii İran sinemasını seviyoruz.

You will enjoy very beautiful scenes and gorgeous long shots if you watch the remastered 10-bit version. It's a good movie to watch on life/death. Not as good (and personal) as his "Taste of cherry" though.

This is okay but didn't really do much for me. It's part fictionalized, part documentary. I didn't like it nearly as much as some of Kiarostami's other work. I found it more similar to Ten in style, which I also wasn't a big fan of.

Estreava há 30 anos na França. Não acho que os filmes da Trilogia Koker atinja o nível de obra-prima como Close-up e Gosto de Cereja, mas um Kiarostami menor ainda é superlativo. O que mais gosto aqui é a diferenciação da tragédia para o cinema de arte iraniano e como estaria anos luz de algo feito por Hollywood, Kiarostami tem uma sensibilidade palpável de gente como a gente, imagine essa história feita pela máquina de moer gente que é Hollywood e seus roteiros mirabolantes e manipulativos. MKO

zig zag road; the zeno's sisyphus

Beautiful display of how Iranians did cope with their situation after the earthquake in rural areas. I just love Kiarostamis tender and sensitive way to tell his stories.

Another fascinating entry in the Koker trilogy, but I'm at a loss to explain why I liked it. It's a somewhat-faked documentary about the director of part 1 (definitely see that first) going back to the towns he filmed after a devastating earthquake. It requires a lot of patience, as people tend to repeat things and there are a lot of long shots of landscape going by (and switchbacks). Still, the focus on little things is really touching.

Camera (car) travels among ruins, which were caused by the same camera 5 years before. It tries to capture reality, but can never record it as it is. It's destructive. At best, a camera can show care, repair the wounds, and point at its own presence. The protagonist's gaze glides into the pastoral & imaginary, each time corrected by Kiarostami's so(m)ber gaze. Real life is beyond that gaze, it has its own plans & the camera can't run the hill w/o real people pushing it (final scene).

Bumped it up some points because it surprisingly recurred in my thoughts over the following days. As much as I liked the car cinematography, individual moments, and some of the exchanges between the father and those they encounter, I'm not sure how much the meta element resonated with me. Seemed more like an excuse for documentary footage - as if one is needed.

A singularly unique project that exists at the edge of documentary, cinema, and reality. The saturated colors evoke a deep nostalgia and warmth in the face of disaster. Reminds me of Murakami's 1990s work (Underground, After the Quake) which also blends fiction with nonfiction to examine society and disaster.

Magnificent. Kiarostami reveals to us the richness of human life in the mountains northwest of Tehran through this carefully constructed (he breaks the fourth wall!) film. The conversations that take place between the father or the son and various villagers are insightful, mundane, tragic, and even funny at times. This film affirms and celebrates life in the midst of the rubble--a profoundly instructive (and even spiritual) document.

"Director: How come you guys stayed alive in the earthquake? Tell me what happened! -- Kid: We went over to my uncle's to watch the football game. -- Director: Alright, go on... tell me what happened! -- Kid: Scotland scored a goal." ... Almost the entire film in one dialogue.

Once again the protaganists set out to find someone in Koker and again do so amongst a people resilient in face of hardships, working together to climb hills and achieve hopes unreachable on their own.

I've hardly seen many Iranian films or post-disaster films, and this one is definitely the best of the latter category. There's not much destruction to see (not even any amplified emotions), just a strong sense of community and humility among people that through this film appears very unpretentious and true to life. In it's own way, this is a genuinely uplifting experience.

78.000

Both observational and introspective, as with Kiarostami's best works.

#545

506

A very slow film that suffers from an underwhelming lead, but there's a lot that can be extracted from it if you give it a chance. The film's temporal setting is its strong suit, giving us a glimpse into moving reactions to the massive tragedy of an earthquake. It manages to avoid the forced sentimentality such a film could have, however, by framing it as a father and son road trip in search of an old acquaintance. Seeing "Where is the friend's home?" first isn't required, but it does add a bit.

500

A brilliantly self-referential concept. It was fun spotting the connections and recalling things that would be recreated in the third film. The more Kiarostami I see, the more I like the cut of his jib. I do have to say that if you divorce the film from its meta-narrative role in the trilogy, it could be considered dull (always an issue with Kiarostami). But I wasn't bored by it. There's a lot of human drama here, it just isn't played out with operatic outbursts or grand gestures.

# 538

Kiarostami's first really great film.