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Where is the Friend's House
(1987)
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
January 25 - Saturday - 7:00 p.m.
The first of three films known as Abbas Kiarostami's Koker Trilogy, Where is the
Friend's House? is the deceivingly simple story of an eight-year-old boy who mis-
takenly takes a friend's notebook and begins his quest to return it, as he knows
that his friend will be punished for not having it. In an effort to infuse a sense
of realism for the people in rural Iran, Kiarostami enlisted non-actors to play the
roles of all the school children. The result is an incredibly humanist, engaging,
and dramatic film. In Farsi language with English subtitles. (35mm. 83 min. Not
Rated.)
Life, And Nothing More...
(1992)
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
January 26 - Sunday - 3:00 p.m.
Abbas Kiarostami restages a long car trip he took with his son just months earlier,
to discover if a boy actor from his previous film has survived a devastating earth-
quake that has rubbled the boy's village where the film was shot. The operative
strategy and genius of the film is the crossing of fiction--the loosely re-enacted
performances of the director and his son--with the actualities encountered on the
difficult and obstructed road to Koker. What emerges from the graceful interplay
of re-enactment and the actual is a deep urge toward empathy and a profound
appreciation of the intelligence, fortitude, and flexibility of Iran's country people.
In Persian language with English subtitles. (35mm. 95 min. Not Rated.)
Through the Olive Trees
(1994)
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
February 2 - Sunday - 3:00 p.m.
Set in rural Iran, two young actors star in a film about a couple who get married
after the woman loses her parents in a devastating earthquake. Off screen,
Hossein falls in love with Tahereh, but the young girl's family disapproves of her
poor and illiterate suitor. To please her family, Tahereh evades Hossein, refusing
to reveal her true feelings. Undaunted, Hossein follows the advice of the film's
director to find out how Tahereh really feels. Like many of Abbas Kiarostami's
films, Through the Olive Trees toys with the line between truth and fiction. In
Farsi language with English subtitles. (35mm. 103 min. Not Rated.)
Abbas Kiarostami 13
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