TEHRAN – Documentarian Hamideh Sharifrad has released three of her documentaries about Abbas Kiarostami’s The Koker Trilogy on Hashure, an Iranian platform providing the video on demand (VOD) service for documentary films.

Kiarostami’s “Where Is the Friend’s House?”, “And Life Goes On” and “Through the Olive Trees” are known as The Koker Trilogy, set in the rural northern-Iranian town of Koker.

“An Interview with Abbas Kiarostami”, “Near the Tree”, and “Beyond the Olive Trees” are the three films available on the portal until May 6 for free, Iran’s Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) announced on Tuesday.

“The documentaries are about Kiarostami’s three acclaimed movies and I always desired that those interested in Kiarostami and his films would have an opportunity to gain more information about his works,” Sharifrad said.

“That is why I decided to release the three documentaries for interested individuals during the home quarantine,” she added.

“I got to know Mr. Kiarostami in 2002 when I registered in courses at the Iranian Youth Cinema Society and began to collaborate with him. I carried out an interview about all his works, and my main goal was to feature his words on his own films,” she said.

“I actually intended to make a film so that those interested in the cinema of Kiarostami could find more about his method of filmmaking through his voice on his own films, and the idea was liked and welcomed by Kiarostami himself,” she explained.

She further added that Kiarostami’s son, Bahman, had recorded some very good images while his father was filming “Through the Olive Trees” and “Taste of Cherry”, and those photos were very useful for her while she was making “Beyond the Olive Trees”.

“Wherever Kiarostami went for filmmaking I accompanied him or even went alone to the locations and did interviews with about 400 individuals who collaborated with Kiarostami in his projects,” she noted. 

Photo: A scene from “Near the Tree” by documentarian Hamideh Sharifrad.

RM/MMS/YAW