The Koker Trilogy (1987-1994)

[Scottie]

A big thank you to SammyJankis for sharing this tweet.

[Invisible_YXR]

Exciting! I can't wait to see the restored version of Where Is the Friend's Home and Through the Olive Trees! The blu-ray version of Taste of Cherry will also be announced in Japan!

[Cremildo]

To call it a must-buy would be an understatement. I'm especially anxious for Through the Olive Trees, which I've never owned on DVD.

[Scottie]

This fascinating article about film preservation confirms that the release is forthcoming by Janus Films and Criterion.

https://www.criterion.com/current/po...ion-in-kolkata

[Scottie]

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 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.

SPECIAL FEATURES

New 2K digital restorations of all three films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays

New audio commentary on And Life Goes On featuring Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosenbaum, coauthors of Abbas Kiarostami

Abbas Kiarostami: Truths and Dreams, a 1994 documentary

New interview with Abbas Kiarostami’s son Ahmad Kiarostami

New conversation between Iranian-film scholar Jamsheed Akrami and film critic Godfrey Cheshire

Conversation from 2015 between Kiarostami and film-festival programmer Peter Scarlet

New English subtitle translations

More!

PLUS: An essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire

New covers by Eric Skillman

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/23...-koker-trilogy

[AaronJ]

Good gracious am I excited about this! I've really liked all the Kiarostami films I've seen, and expect to really like these three as well. Plus, the extras look nice too.

[malakaheso]

About time!

[Cremildo]

[Nielsb90]

I think this has just made it onto my wishlist - the reviews are certainly positive! I just now finished Close Up after having it on my shelf for a couple of years. This is the first Kiarostami film I've ever seen and certainly a fascinating and different one. I will be digging into the supplements in the coming days.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Iranian Film Museum in Tehran back in spring 2016 while on vacation. Coincidentally a few months before his deaths. The Iranians certainly seem to appreciate and love their filmmakers in this day and age if the museum is any indication. It was comprehensive, the building and garden were both beautiful, and they even had a cinema showing films daily. But since I know exactly one word of Farsi it didn't make much sense to stay for a screening..

[malakaheso]

Watched all of these films the other day. They look very good, although Olive Trees has some odd looking skin tones at times. Apparently Eclair was responsible for the transfer, and you can kind of half tell, although the grading isn't as blatantly different as some of their other restorations like L'argent.

[ThatKieslowskiHaze]

Here is a video essay I made about And Life Goes On....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DujiNUoRYHs

[KrugerIndustrial]

Has there been any news of these films receiving a 4K restoration recently? I'm interested in picking up this set during the sale, but I keep hesitating with every Blu-ray-only Criterion release these days, worried they'll announce a 4K edition shortly afterwards.