THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES Persian Film Fest Screening
Saturday 24. January at 18:00 - 19:45
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
January 24 is Kiarostami Saturday - proudly presented as part of our extended Persian Film Fest at FOMO Secret Cinema.
Abbas Kiarostami | 1994 | Iran | 103 minutes | original Persian audio with English subtitles.
THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES follows Hossein, a young construction worker attempting to court Tahereh, the woman who has been cast opposite him in a film being shot in rural northern Iran. As the production continues, Hossein repeatedly tries to persuade her to marry him. She responds with silence. The film unfolds around this imbalance, where desire, class difference, and social expectation collide.
This film belongs to the second wave of the Persian New Wave and forms the final part of Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy. It uses filmmaking itself as a narrative device, revealing how performance and real life bleed into one another. Hossein’s persistence is neither mocked nor endorsed. Kiarostami observes how tradition, poverty, and education limit choice, especially for women.
The film is admired for its restraint and emotional precision. Its famous final sequence refuses closure, asking the audience to confront uncertainty rather than resolution. He would later repeat this same approach with his equal famous ending in THE TASTE OF CHERRY.
THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES is arguably Kiarostami’s most humane work. His attempt at demonstrating how power in everyday Iranian life is exercised more through expectation than force will leave a lasting effect on you long after you walk out of the cinema.
Location: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro
How to find FOMO: Enter the Bazari via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left behind the jewellery stand. One flight up. Video instructions here
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0102 Tbilisi, Georgia
