And Life Goes On (1992) Iran New Wave

[00:00:06]and life goes on our life and nothing more is an Iranian film from 1992 written and directed by abas kirami the second in his kker Trilogy so-called because all three films were set in the northern Iranian Village of kooka in the first film where is my friend's house a school child goes off in search of his friend house to return a notebook he took my mistake which will cause his friend to be expelled from school if not returned it's a fantastically small drama about big [Music] feelings in this second film we follow the director of that film here played by an actor as he attempts to revisit the region in which the film was shot to catch up with the actors and see where their lives have headed since [Music] [Music] I'm kidding but he really does love his country it's obvious in every frame in how he lets us take it all in in an almost realtime pace and in this film how he openly debates the careful Balancing Act of crafting compelling cinematic drama while not sacrificing the truth to do so or train the Simplicity of it by adding unnecessary Dramatics basically he wants to do his people proud and for that reason this feels like a transitional film one way he's really trying to find his feet as an artist by revisiting his past and the present to find the truth on Thursday 21st of June 1990 an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 hit Northern Iran somewhere between 35,000 and 50,000 people were killed this film is about telling the truth of that so what we get is a graceful Scenic tour interspersed with characters who dip in and out along the way without warning all getting on with their lives or scrabbling around in the rubble of [Music] it the Hills and Valleys we travel in this little citr almost Echo the emmersion of Peaks and troughs these interactions create this is why to me it feels like a transitional film because he's playing with structure in a way which seems organic but you know that really he's in complete control of how we feel while watching he's just learning to create this cinematic illusion of truth without making it obvious by connecting dots that aren't there or hitting the right story beats saving the cat or whatever any of the sorts of things that the mainstream does to reality he's beginning to study these Notions and rebel against them but it also feels like he hasn't yet fully realized how to use them so though we are driven through a range of emotions and the dips and troughs we never sink deep enough or saw high enough to really be broken by it it's just life and Life Goes On which is probably the point come to think of [Music] it anyway I've not watched that many of his films yet but everyone has been stimulated in many ways and every one of them I feel like I need to revisit again and again to really take it all in and that's the sign of a great filmmaker I think I'd love to see more films based in Iran as well just to see what his peers were were and are up to anybody got any recommendations Chuck them in the comments we are the don't tell if you liked please subscribe