And Life Goes On (1992)

4 Stars (out of 4)

Films and 'Life'

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

The middle film (1991) of Abbas Kiarostami's "Earthquake Trilogy" -- after Where Is the Friend's Home? (1987) and before Through the Olive Trees (1994) -- is yet another masterpiece and perhaps the first film on which the filmmaker really began playing around with space and reality. It starts like a documentary, with an actor who is not Kiarostami playing a filmmaker who suggests Kiarostami. (He's played by Farhad Kheradmand.) Driving around the village of Koker that was recently destroyed by an earthquake, he looks for the young actors who played in Where Is the Friend's Home?. Instead, the filmmaker becomes involved in the locals and their attempts to rebuild their lives among the rubble. Many scenes feel improvised, but the poetry in them seem too deliberate for that. The final shot involving the filmmaker's car and a twisty uphill road will resonate for hours after the film is over. It's also known as Life and Nothing More.... Please see also my review of the Criterion Collection's The Koker Trilogy Blu-ray box set.