990-992 The Koker Trilogy

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swo17
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990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#1 Post by swo17 » Wed May 15, 2019 4:52 pm

The Koker Trilogy

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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.

Where Is the Friend's House?

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The first film in Abbas Kiarostami's sublime, interlacing Koker Trilogy takes a simple premise—a boy searches for the home of his classmate, whose school notebook he has accidentally taken—and transforms it into a miraculous, child's-eye adventure of the everyday. As our young hero zigzags determinedly across two towns, aided (and sometimes misdirected) by those he encounters, his quest becomes both a revealing portrait of rural Iranian society in all its richness and complexity and a touching parable about the meaning of personal responsibility. Sensitive and profound, Where Is the Friend's House? is shot through with all the beauty, tension, and wonder a single day can contain.

And Life Goes On

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In the aftermath of a 1990 earthquake that left at least thirty thousand dead, Abbas Kiarostami returned to Koker, where his camera surveys not only devastation but also the teeming life in its wake. Blending fiction and reality into a playful, poignant road movie, And Life Goes On follows a film director who, along with his son, makes the trek to the region in hopes of finding out if the young star of Where Is the Friend's House? is among the survivors, and discovers a resilient community pressing on in the face of tragedy. Finding beauty in the bleakest of circumstances, Kiarostami crafts a quietly majestic ode to the best of the human spirit.

Through the Olive Trees

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Abbas Kiarostami takes meta-narrative gamesmanship to masterful new heights in the final installment of The Koker Trilogy. Unfolding "behind the scenes" of And Life Goes On, this film traces the complications that arise when the romantic misfortune of one of the actors—a young man who pines for the woman cast as his wife, even though, in real life, she will have nothing to do with him—creates turmoil on set and leaves the hapless director caught in the middle. An ineffably lovely, gentle human comedy steeped in the folkways of Iranian village life, Through the Olive Trees peels away layer after layer of artifice as it investigates the elusive, alchemical relationship between cinema and reality.

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

mteller
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#2 Post by mteller » Wed May 15, 2019 4:55 pm

Very odd that the numbering is this:

990: Where is the Friend's House?
991: And Life Goes On
992: box
993: Through the Olive Trees

Trying to recall if there's some thematic reason they would order it that way.

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yoloswegmaster
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#3 Post by yoloswegmaster » Wed May 15, 2019 4:57 pm

I think it's a computer error. The box and Life Goes On show up as #991 for me

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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#4 Post by Glowingwabbit » Wed May 15, 2019 4:57 pm

mteller wrote:
Wed May 15, 2019 4:55 pm
Very odd that the numbering is this:

990: Where is the Friend's House?
991: And Life Goes On
992: box
993: Through the Olive Trees

Trying to recall if there's some thematic reason they would order it that way.
Where do you see 993? It says 992 on page for Through the Olive Trees

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Omensetter
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#5 Post by Omensetter » Wed May 15, 2019 5:02 pm

They just posted these minutes ago; I'm sure it will be updated to its custom soon enough. I'm more curious about the supplements.

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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#6 Post by denti alligator » Wed May 15, 2019 5:03 pm

hallelujah!

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agnamaracs
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#7 Post by agnamaracs » Wed May 15, 2019 5:05 pm

What I saw was:
990: Where Is the Friend's House
991: And Life Goes On
992: Through the Olive Trees
991 again: box

*twitch*

mteller
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#8 Post by mteller » Wed May 15, 2019 5:07 pm

Ah yes that's what I'm seeing now too. I may have had a brain fart earlier. Either way, probably just an error.

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Omensetter
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#9 Post by Omensetter » Wed May 15, 2019 5:10 pm

They should give the box 993 and work backwards.

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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#10 Post by Glowingwabbit » Wed May 15, 2019 5:11 pm

Omensetter wrote:
Wed May 15, 2019 5:02 pm
They just posted these minutes ago; I'm sure it will be updated to its custom soon enough. I'm more curious about the supplements.
Welp I'll be visiting the page everyday to see what the "more" is. Hopefully it's some of the shorts/docs.

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Omensetter
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#11 Post by Omensetter » Wed May 15, 2019 5:15 pm

I don't even see a "More!" There's probably precedent for a release like this to go live without any supplements, but I'm surprised they didn't have it ready given the box's gestation. I'm sure they'll be posted sooner than later.

mteller
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#12 Post by mteller » Wed May 15, 2019 5:17 pm

Omensetter wrote:
Wed May 15, 2019 5:15 pm
I don't even see a "More!"
Image

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Omensetter
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#13 Post by Omensetter » Wed May 15, 2019 5:20 pm

Ah, well now I hope that "More!" is substantial. Thank you.

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Ribs
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#14 Post by Ribs » Wed May 15, 2019 5:24 pm

Oh my word, just watching the clips of this has me dearly excited considering the past shape of this stuff...

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denti alligator
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#15 Post by denti alligator » Wed May 15, 2019 6:21 pm

If the shorts were going to be included, they'd be listed already, no?
Are they saving them for a different box set?

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swo17
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#16 Post by swo17 » Wed May 15, 2019 6:23 pm

There have been numerous cases of short films being included in the "More!"

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denti alligator
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#17 Post by denti alligator » Wed May 15, 2019 6:30 pm

Excellent to be wrong about that.

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#18 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed May 15, 2019 7:08 pm

Of course I always hope for more "more" -- but simply have these wonderful films available in decent subbed form is cause enough for me to celebrate.

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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#19 Post by denti alligator » Wed May 15, 2019 8:27 pm

These films were transformative for me when I first saw them about 15 years ago. I saw the first two in a small NYC theater and was floored. Then I saw them again a couple years later along with the final one during the MoMA Kiarostami run. They're glorious. I am thrilled to be able to watch them again and again with this set, and to show them to my family and friends.

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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#20 Post by Michael Kerpan » Wed May 15, 2019 8:31 pm

Beautiful and touching -- but with quite a bit of very intelligent humor.

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zedz
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#21 Post by zedz » Wed May 15, 2019 10:01 pm

I didn't see Where Is the Friend's House? until decades after the other two (on the French DVD, mentally translating the subtitles). They're all stand-alone masterpieces - And Life Goes On was one of the greatest films I'd ever seen, even without any knowledge of the first film (and it still is, with one of the greatest endings) - but the satisfying click they make when considered together elevate these three films to the very top echelon of cinema: a unique trilogy in which each successive film is set in the "real world" implied by the previous one, creating a profound meditation on the function and mechanics of cinema and on the aesthetic conceit of "realism."

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captveg
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#22 Post by captveg » Fri May 31, 2019 11:35 am

agnamaracs wrote:
Wed May 15, 2019 5:05 pm
What I saw was:
990: Where Is the Friend's House
991: And Life Goes On
992: Through the Olive Trees
991 again: box

*twitch*
Looks like this has now been changed on the website by dropping the # for the box set.

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movielocke
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#23 Post by movielocke » Fri May 31, 2019 1:57 pm

captveg wrote:
Fri May 31, 2019 11:35 am
agnamaracs wrote:
Wed May 15, 2019 5:05 pm
What I saw was:
990: Where Is the Friend's House
991: And Life Goes On
992: Through the Olive Trees
991 again: box

*twitch*
Looks like this has now been changed on the website by dropping the # for the box set.
Precedent for that being the spineless BBS box set.

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swo17
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#24 Post by swo17 » Fri May 31, 2019 2:18 pm

I refuse to recognize this, which is why I take a magic marker to each subsequent Criterion release to reflect the correct numbering

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domino harvey
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Re: 990-992 The Koker Trilogy

#25 Post by domino harvey » Fri May 31, 2019 2:41 pm

Wait, Criterions are numbered now?!?

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