Through the Olive Trees Blu-ray - Mohamad Ali Keshavarz

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Through the Olive Trees" or "Zire darakhatan zeyton")

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
Iran 1994

Abbas Kiarostami takes metanarrative gamesmanship to masterful new heights in the final installment of The Koker Trilogy. Unfolding “behind the scenes” of And Life Goes On, this film traces the complications that arise when the romantic misfortune of one of the actors—a young man who pines for the woman cast as his wife, even though, in real life, she will have nothing to do with him—creates turmoil on set and leaves the hapless director caught in the middle. An ineffably lovely, gentle human comedy steeped in the folkways of Iranian village life, Through the Olive Trees peels away layer after layer of artifice as it investigates the elusive, alchemical relationship between cinema and reality.

***

Through the Olive Trees is usually described as the concluding feature in a trilogy, preceded by Where Is My Friend's Home? and And Life Goes On..., but it's important to note that each film was conceived and planned separately, and that Kiarostami has recently spoken about plans to make a fourth feature in the series. (The Chicago International Film Festival showed the trilogy in its entirety last fall.) In any event, you don't need to have seen any of the preceding features for this one to register fully; the important thing to bear in mind is how organically, logically, yet unexpectedly Kiarostami's oeuvre develops from one film to the next, each work containing the seed of its successor.

Excerpt from Jonathan Rosenbaum at the Chicago Reader located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 1st, 1994 (Fajr International Film Festival)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Review: Criterion - Region 'A' / 'B' - Blu-ray

Box Cover		Only part of Criterion's 'Koker Trilogy' Blu-ray set: Also available on Blu-ray in the UK by Criterion in September 2019:
Distribution	Criterion - Spine #992 - Region 'A' / 'B' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:43:53.101
Video	1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 40,407,874,008 bytes Feature: 31,261,870,080 bytes Video Bitrate: 35.97 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	LPCM Audio Persian 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Criterion 1.66:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 40,407,874,008 bytes Feature: 31,261,870,080 bytes Video Bitrate: 35.97 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • New interview with director Abbas Kiarostami’s son Ahmad Kiarostami (14:12) • New conversation between scholar Jamsheed Akrami and critic Godfrey Cheshire (19:32) Blu-ray Release Date: August 27th, 2019 Custom Blu-ray Case Chapters 20

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (July 2019): Criterion have transferred Abbas Kiarostami's Through the Olive Trees to Blu-ray as part of their 3-disc Koker Trilogy Blu-ray set that also includes Where Is My Friend's House? and And Life Goes On. It is advertised as a "New 2K digital restoration". It looks excellent, not showing the damage in Where Is My Friend's Home?. The image does get inordinately thick and saturated around the 24-minute mark but it is only for a scene. Otherwise this is a solid image showing rich colors (faint green bias in spots) and occasional depth. It's on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate and look film-like in-motion.

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original Farsi language. It is flat but dialogue is clear and consistent. The less-noticeable score is credited to Chema Rosas also with Conc. C 4.Allegro Giusto by Domenico Cimarosa performed by Heinz Holliger. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' / 'B' Blu-ray (depending on what region you buy it in.)

Extras include a new 1/4 hour interview with director Abbas Kiarostami’s son Ahmad Kiarostami, conducted by the Criterion Collection in 2018, where he talks about the personal stories behind the films that make up The Koker Trilogy. There is also a new 20-minute conversation between scholar Jamsheed Akrami and critic Godfrey Cheshire on the subject of Abbas Kiarostami's Koker Trilogy, its importance to the New Iranian Cinema, and whether it can properly be called a trilogy at all. The Koker Trilogy Blu-ray package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by Cheshire.

Criterion's description is apt: "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." Through the Olive Trees a beautiful film - a special depiction of the off-screen relationship between the actors portraying the newlyweds in Kiarostamis And Life Goes On from the previous year. I am thrilled to own it on Blu-ray. A very strong recommendation!

Gary Tooze