The second in Kiarostami's 'Koker' trilogy begin in an earthquake-torn Iran. From the vantage point of a car, driven by a film director with his son in back, we see the utter devastation wrought by it - the first half of the film is simply the journey back to where Where is the Friend's House was filmed. There's something really complex going on here - the director really did want to know if the people he'd worked with five years before were OK, but uses this as a reason for making a fictional film about it. Thus, when he picks up one of his prior cast, the man complains that the film crew made him wear a hunch back and treated him 'cruelly', then reveals his house is his 'film house' (then, almost under his breath, that it isn't really - he's living in a tent - in other words the fact behind the fiction behind the fiction. And so when we learn others tell of their experiences - so many have lost so many - you don't actually know whether they're telling the truth or not. But the point is, it doesn't matter, because you get the impact of the devastation along the way, and the son's reactions to things help make sense of it. 'How can it be God's will to kill children? The earthquake is like a wild dog, attacking where it wants' and other morsels of sense.
It's filmed in a very simple style with lots of long takes, often mesmerizing, particularly when his little car is taxed by the inhospitable mountain roadways. But with a sense of humour throughout - the World Cup is on, and this is something that seems as important to people as the disaster, provoking further discussion, e.g. do you think it's right to be erecting a TV antenna when so many have died? 'I lost my wife and my sister, but life goes on. And the world cup in only every four years.' And loved the father 'Every road leads somewhere' to which his son replies 'Then what's a dead end?'
Anyone who's read / watched Mark Cousins' fascinating book / series 'The Story of Film' will know all this but for those unaware, this film trilogy is well worth investigating. Criterion have released it as a box set.
With Farhad Kheradmand and Buba Bayour.
The ending is one of the longest fixed camera long shots I think I've ever seen.
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