Koker trilogy
Encyclopedia
Koker trilogy refers to a series of three films directed by Abbas Kiarostami
.
Koker trilogy
refers to Where Is the Friend's Home?
(1987), And Life Goes On (a.k.a. Life and Nothing More, 1992) and Through the Olive Trees
(1994). The designation was done by film theorists and critics. However Kiarostami resists the designation, noting that the films are connected only by the accident of place (Koker is the name of a village in northern Iran). He has suggested it might be more appropriate to consider as a trilogy the latter two titles plus Taste of Cherry
(1997), since these, he says, are connected by a theme: the preciousness of life.
Where Is the Friend's Home? depicts the simple story of a young boy who travels from Koker to a neighbouring village to return the notebook of a schoolmate. Life and Nothing More follows a father and his young son as they drive from Tehran to Koker in search of the two young boys from Where Is the Friend's Home?, fearing that the two might have perished in the 1990 earthquake that killed 50,000 people in northern Iran. Through the Olive Trees examines the making of a small scene from Life and Nothing More, forcing us to view a peripheral drama
from Life and Nothing More as the central drama in Through the Olive Trees.
Kiarostami's three films are poised between fiction and real life, opening film to new formal experiences. They are his greatest work, argues Gilberto Perez
.
Film critic Adrian Martin who emphasises Kiarostami's direct perception of the world, identifying his cinema as being "diagrammatical". Literal "diagrams" inscribed in the landscape, such as the famous zigzagging pathway in the Koker Trilogy, indicate a "geometry of forces of life and of the world". For Martin, these forces are neither complete order, nor complete chaos but rather what lies between these poles.
Abbas Kiarostami
Abbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries...
.
Koker trilogy
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
refers to Where Is the Friend's Home?
Where Is the Friend's Home?
Where Is the Friend's Home? is a 1987 Iranian film directed and written by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. The title of the film was derived from a poem by Sohrab Sepehri...
(1987), And Life Goes On (a.k.a. Life and Nothing More, 1992) and Through the Olive Trees
Through the Olive Trees
Through the Olive Trees is a 1994 film directed and written by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, set in earthquake-ravaged Northern Iran....
(1994). The designation was done by film theorists and critics. However Kiarostami resists the designation, noting that the films are connected only by the accident of place (Koker is the name of a village in northern Iran). He has suggested it might be more appropriate to consider as a trilogy the latter two titles plus Taste of Cherry
Taste of Cherry
Taste of Cherry is a 1997 film by the Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. It is a minimalist film about a man who drives through a city suburb looking for someone who can carry out the task to bury him after he has died.-Plot:...
(1997), since these, he says, are connected by a theme: the preciousness of life.
Where Is the Friend's Home? depicts the simple story of a young boy who travels from Koker to a neighbouring village to return the notebook of a schoolmate. Life and Nothing More follows a father and his young son as they drive from Tehran to Koker in search of the two young boys from Where Is the Friend's Home?, fearing that the two might have perished in the 1990 earthquake that killed 50,000 people in northern Iran. Through the Olive Trees examines the making of a small scene from Life and Nothing More, forcing us to view a peripheral drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
from Life and Nothing More as the central drama in Through the Olive Trees.
Kiarostami's three films are poised between fiction and real life, opening film to new formal experiences. They are his greatest work, argues Gilberto Perez
Gilberto Perez
Gilberto Perez is an American Professor of Film Studies.Perez studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University. He is currently head of the film history department at Sarah Lawrence College.-Awards:...
.
Film critic Adrian Martin who emphasises Kiarostami's direct perception of the world, identifying his cinema as being "diagrammatical". Literal "diagrams" inscribed in the landscape, such as the famous zigzagging pathway in the Koker Trilogy, indicate a "geometry of forces of life and of the world". For Martin, these forces are neither complete order, nor complete chaos but rather what lies between these poles.