The Koker Trilogy
5 Episodes
Criterion Collection Edition #990/991/992
Abbas Kiarostami first came to international attention for this wondrous, slyly self-referential series of films set in the rural northern-Iranian town of Koker. Poised delicately between fiction and documentary, comedy and tragedy, the lyrical fables in THE KOKER TRILOGY exemplify both the gentle humanism and the playful sleight of hand that define the director’s sensibility. With each successive film, Kiarostami takes us deeper into the behind-the-scenes “reality” of the film that preceded it, heightening our understanding of the complex network of human relationships that sustain both a movie set and a village. The result is a gradual outward zoom that reveals the cosmic majesty and mystery of ordinary life.
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1:23:23Episode 1Where Is the Friend’s House?
Episode 1
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami • 1987 • Iran
The first film in Abbas Kiarostami’s sublime, interlacing KOKER TRILOGY takes a simple premise—a boy searches for the home of his classmate, whose school notebook he has accidentally taken—and transforms it into a miraculous, child’s-eye adventure of ...
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1:43:50Episode 2Through the Olive Trees
Episode 2
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami • 1994 • Iran
Starring Mohammad Ali Keshavarz, Farhad Kheradmand, Zarifeh ShivaAbbas Kiarostami takes metanarrative gamesmanship to masterful new heights in the final installment of THE KOKER TRILOGY. Unfolding “behind the scenes” of AND LIFE GOES ON, this film t...
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14:16Episode 3Ahmad Kiarostami on THE KOKER TRILOGY
Episode 3
In this interview, conducted in 2018, director Abbas Kiarostami's son Ahmad talks about the personal stories behind the films that make up THE KOKER TRILOGY.
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Jamsheed Akrami and Godfrey Cheshire on THE KOKER TRILOGY
Episode 4
In 2018, the Criterion Collection recorded this conversation between scholar Jamsheed Akrami and critic Godfrey Cheshire on the subject of Abbas Kiarostami's KOKER TRILOGY, its importance to the New Iranian Cinema, and whether it can properly be called a trilogy at all.
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Abbas Kiarostami and Peter Scarlet on THE KOKER TRILOGY
Episode 5
Programmer Peter Scarlet interviewed director Abbas Kiarostami about his life, career, and THE KOKER TRILOGY in 2015. Live translation is provided by Massoumeh Lahidji.
