Through The Olive Trees- Abbas Kiarostami May 2026

Then, she turns. She runs. But not away. She runs back towards the set, back towards the crew. Hossein watches her go. Defeated? Perhaps.

Then, they come to a fork in the road. The path splits through a large olive grove. Tahereh takes the upper path; Hossein takes the lower. The audience holds its breath. Is it over? Did he fail? Through the olive trees- Abbas Kiarostami

But then—and this is the miracle—she stops. She turns. She lifts her hand to her head, adjusts her white headscarf. Then, in the most subtle, un-cinematic gesture in film history, she looks back at him. And she runs slowly . She runs back to him. She passes him and continues up the hill. Hossein, stunned, turns to follow. Then, she turns

Kiarostami (the real one) is playing a cruel, beautiful joke on his audience. We are rooting for Hossein, despite his arrogance. We want the fiction to win. We want the poor boy to get the girl. But the film refuses to give us the easy satisfaction of a Hollywood romance. The final seven minutes of Through the Olive Trees are arguably the most perfect sequence in Kiarostami’s career. After production wraps, Hossein is told that Tahereh has left the set and is walking home, carrying a heavy bag of plaster. She runs back towards the set, back towards the crew