In terms of Iranian cinema, they don’t get much bigger or more significant than Abbas Kiarostami. A genuine stalwart auteur of his native country, Kiarostami has captured the world’s attention with some of the greatest movies of all time, always delivering with his unique and careful attention to thematic attention.
Through the Koker trilogy and Close-Up, the Tehran-born filmmaker announced himself as one of the greats of contemporary world film, delving into a personal cinematic language bursting with ambition, seeping with emotion. Following up over the years with The Wind Will Carry Us and Taste of Cherry, Kiarostami will always be considered a master of cinema.
Naturally, then, Kiarostami has earned the admiration of his fellow filmmakers, most notably Martin Scorsese, who considers him a personal favourite. There’s always a special theme in Kiarostami’s works, and in 1994’s drama Through the Olive Trees, he delved into perhaps his most characters, something that he had been keen to explore.
The final part of the Koker trilogy, the film takes place in earthquake-ravaged Northern Iran and focuses on the production of the second film in the trilogy, which was itself a reconsideration of the first film. In an interview with Bomb, Kiarostami had pointed out how he wanted to move away from the stereotypical view of women that often arrives in Iranian cinema.
“Traditionally, in Iranian films, the female characters are portrayed in two categories: as mothers or as mistresses,” the director said. “And neither of these categories have characters I’d like to use. They lack human dimension.” Kiarostami went on to explain that the big movies of the West also fall victim to treating women like “cosmetic characters” in order to generate a bigger box office.
According to the Iranian filmmaker, there are two further types of women character in Iranian cinema, the “heroic, shrewd type” and the “victim”, neither of which he can relate to. So between heroes, victims, mothers and mistresses, there wasn’t much to choose from, which is why Through the Olive Trees features three strong women characters, the resistant Tahereh, her grandmother and the assistant director Mrs. Shiva.
However, Kiarostami admitted that he was unable to properly explore the stories of such women in his film, noting, “There are exceptional women characters, but then I don’t make movies about exceptions. I would like to deal with normal women.” Explorations of womanhood are not something that Kiarostami has often delivered, and it’s clear that he has found it difficult to deliver such narratives, even when strong female characters were present in his films.
“I would like to have that kind of woman character whose womanhood is not an issue, but I just can’t find them,” the director admitted. Instead, Kiarostami often explores the link between art and life and the boundaries between reality and fiction, and if there’s any sex or general examination, then it’s likely of men.
Kiarostami is undoubtedly a master of cinema, but the truth is that his comments are somewhat disappointing. For someone with such an eye for emotional detail in the harsh realities of modern life, for him to neglect to explore the role of women in society seems to be a shirking of responsibility, something that perhaps taints his legacy somewhat.
Of course, Kiarostami’s reputation as an auteur will remain intact, but when it came to Through the Olive Trees, it appeared that he was presented with the perfect opportunity to dive into the “exceptional” experience of women, but it was a chance that he was not prepared nor courageous enough to take on.