← Through the Olive Trees
Through the Olive Trees poster

Through the Olive Trees · reception & legacy

1995 · Abbas Kiarostami

How Through the Olive Trees has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A Cannes competition title in 1994 that helped make Kiarostami the festival darling of the decade, it was slightly overshadowed at the time by the films around it; the Criterion Koker Trilogy box later cemented it as the capstone of one of cinema's great trilogies rather than a footnote.

What's debated

Fans endlessly relitigate that famous ambiguous ending — sublime act of faith or a shrug? — alongside the eternal 'which Koker film is best' debate.

Its footprint

Its final image — two tiny figures crossing a landscape in one unbroken extreme long shot — is one of the most discussed closing shots in film history, a go-to reference whenever cinephiles talk about endings.

Where it stands

Slow-cinema canon as the meta-textual finale of the Koker trilogy — the 'you must watch all three in order' film of 90s art cinema.

★ Did you know? Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, who plays the film director, was the only professional actor in the cast — and announces as much directly to camera in the opening shot; everyone else was a nonprofessional from the earthquake-struck region where the trilogy was shot.