In that silent chase, Kiarostami captures the entirety of human longing. We are left in agonizing suspense: Will she stop? Is this real? Is this still the movie?
At the heart of this structural labyrinth is a romance that is simultaneously absurd, tragic, and achingly real. Hossein (Hossein Rezai) is a young bricklayer who has lost everything in the quake. He has been hired as a bit-part actor in the film-within-the-film. Tahereh (Tahereh Ladanian) is an upper-class girl from the village, also hired, to play the wife of the protagonist in the interior film. Through the olive trees- Abbas Kiarostami
In real life, Hossein had proposed to Tahereh before the earthquake, but was rejected by her family because he was poor, illiterate, and homeless. On set, Tahereh maintains a "blistering silence," refusing to even look at him or speak his name during takes, forcing the director to repeatedly intervene in their personal drama. Key Themes and Style In that silent chase, Kiarostami captures the entirety
At the heart of the film is Hossein, a local stonemason-turned-actor, who is desperately in love with his co-star, Tahereh. Is this still the movie
The director (Kiarostami, essentially playing himself) calls "Cut." The film-within-a-film is over. The crew packs up. Hossein, realizing this is his absolute last chance, breaks the fictional frame. He chases after Tahereh as she walks away, across the rolling hills of northern Iran, zigzagging through the endless rows of olive trees.
For the entire duration of the shoot, we watch Hossein struggle. He pleads with her, he recites poetry, he argues that the earthquake that killed 50,000 people should have shattered the class barriers that keep them apart. He uses the film’s script as a Trojan horse to confess his actual feelings. Tahereh remains a silent, impenetrable wall of indifference.