Is Through the Olive Trees part of a series?

Yes — it is the third film in Kiarostami's Koker trilogy. The first is Where Is the Friend's House? (1987) and the second is Life, and Nothing More... (1992). Each stands alone but the three reward watching in order.

Koja mishe filme Zire Derakhatan Zeyton ro online did?

You can watch it directly on K-Time — no extra download or VPN needed. The film streams in its original Persian audio on the web, TV, and phone.

What language is the film in — does it have subtitles?

The film is in Persian (Farsi). It streams in its original language on K-Time. Check the player settings for available subtitle options at the time of your viewing.

Kiarostami filmsaz-e irani bood? In film kharej az Iran ham shohrat dasht?

Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran and made his films in Iran. Through the Olive Trees earned wide international recognition, including being presented at Cannes, and is considered one of the landmark works of 1990s world cinema.

Zire Derakhatan Zeyton

Name: Zire Derakhatan Zeyton
Genre: Drama
Released: 1994
Duration: 103 min
Cast: Mohammadali Keshavarz, Farhad Kheradmand, Zarifeh Shiva, Hossein Rezai, Tahereh Ladanian

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

Cast: Mohammadali Keshavarz, Farhad Kheradmand, Zarifeh Shiva, Hossein Rezai, Tahereh Ladanian

Zire Derakhatan Zeyton (Through the Olive Trees) is a 1994 Iranian drama film directed by Abbas Kiarostami, the concluding chapter of his celebrated Koker trilogy. Shot in the earthquake-devastated villages of northern Iran, it blurs the boundary between fiction and lived reality in ways that few films have achieved before or since.

What is Zire Derakhatan Zeyton about?

A film crew arrives in rural Gilan to shoot scenes for a drama set in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. During production, a young construction worker named Hossein — playing a newly married man in the film — refuses to stay merely within the boundaries of his scripted role. Off-camera, he pursues the actress opposite him, a young woman from a wealthy family who will not speak to him or acknowledge his existence. As the director coaxes another take and the cameras roll again, the line between the story being filmed and Hossein's genuine longing grows impossible to separate. Kiarostami frames the entire situation with patience and wit, letting the audience watch a film being made while also watching something far more tender and unresolved unfold in the silences between scenes.

The K-Time take

Through the Olive Trees rewards the viewer willing to slow down with it. Kiarostami's direction is deceptively understated — long takes, natural light, amateur performers who feel entirely present — and the film's central romantic tension accumulates quietly across a working day on a hillside. Its final shot is among the most discussed in Iranian cinema for good reason: nothing is resolved in words, yet everything is felt.

Cast & crew

Mohammadali Keshavarz plays the film-within-a-film's director, a figure whose calm authority anchors the meta-fictional frame. Hossein Rezai, a non-professional actor, brings an earnest intensity to the role of Hossein that no amount of training could manufacture. Tahereh Ladanian, also a non-actor from the region, carries the film's emotional weight through silence and restraint rather than dialogue.

Context & significance

This film arrives as the third part of Kiarostami's Koker trilogy, following Where Is the Friend's House? (1987) and Life, and Nothing More... (1992), both set in the same northern Iranian village community. For diaspora audiences, it offers something rare: a portrait of rural Iranian life — its social codes, its class distances, its quiet dignity — that predates the mass departure and carries no propaganda. Watching it abroad, Persian-speaking viewers often note how vividly it preserves the texture of a world many families left behind. The 1990 earthquake that devastated Roudbar and Manjil is the silent historical weight beneath every frame.

Where & how to watch

Through the Olive Trees is available on K-Time with the original Persian-language audio. No VPN is needed and there is no geo-blocking — watch directly on the web, on your TV, or on your phone. Membership can be cancelled anytime.