"Lover Under the Olive Tree", Abbas's 1994 film, the third part of the country trilogy, the first two are "Where Is My Friend's Home" and "Born and Grow".
The so-called movie within a movie and a play within a play are manifested in at least three levels in this film:
1. The film in which the director is making.
Hussein and Tahri are both actors selected by the director. They are playing the film "Born and Grow", the two are a newlywed couple, relatives died in the earthquake 65, but they are still married, living a daily life such as carrying plaster and watering flowers, after a huge life and death disaster, everything is continuing.
2. The true identities of the two people in the film.
Tahli's family is better off and still in school, but her parents died in the earthquake, the house fell, and there is a grandmother in the family. She is assertive, stubborn, and yearning for modern life.
Hussein was alone, his family did not have a house, and he had not attended school. He met Tahri for the first time in the cemetery, fell in love with her, and proposed to her family when he was rejected. After the earthquake, he again expressed his willingness to propose to his grandmother, but was again rejected.
Hussein is always nagging between films with Tahri and repeatedly showing Tahli that he hopes to be with her and give her happiness. He thinks he doesn't have a house now, but he will have it later, and he can make tea for her now, and he will do it later, and he can earn money for her to go to school in the future. He told Tahri that he could not go against his will just because grandma did not agree.
Tahri had been sitting on the side reading a book without saying a word.
Hussein said, if you think I'm right, you just have to turn a page of the book and let me know what you're thinking. Tahri didn't move.
It's just that when she was about to start making movies again, she seemed to have flipped through the book.
After the film, Hussein thought that he might never see Tahli again, and followed Tahli along the way, continuing to repeat his reasons for marrying her. Tahri walked unhurriedly without saying a word.
Reaching the Z-shaped steep slope, Tahli slowly climbed up the hill, and Hussein watched desperately. Watching Tahli disappear to the top of the slope, Hussein put aside his belongings and sprinted up the steep slope.
Looking down from the top of the slope, Tahli crossed an olive grove towards a field of greenery. Hussein rushed down the steep slope and over the olive groves.
The camera watched from a distance, two small white dots, getting closer and closer. It was as if they had met, as if they had stopped, but as if they had not, Tahli's white dot continued to move forward, and Hussein's white dot jumped and ran back, across the green field, out of a different path than before.
He ran so fast. Whether Tahri had said anything to him, whether it was utter despair or hope, we don't know.
3, we are watching this film.
We know that Hussein and Tahri are filming "Life and Growth", we know that in reality, Hussein and Tahli are bearing the burden of earthquake deaths, knowing that Hussein is chasing Tahli, knowing that Tahri has not yet agreed.
We also know that we are actually watching "Lover Under the Olive Tree", which is also a movie, that is, the story of Hussein Tahli, and it is also the plot of this movie, but it is easy for us to take their story as true.
This is because they are making "Life and Growth", that is a "movie", we default to it as "fake", and outside of making this "movie", it should be realistic, it should be "real", and the whole plot has a documentary color, which constructs our trust in the plot, especially our unconditional belief in the story of Hussein and Tahri.
When we suddenly wake up, oh, in fact, hussein Tahli's story, is also a movie story, but also "fake", we will go back and think, the fake part of the "movie", is not it also possible to be "real"?
Hussein Tahli plays the married life, if they are together, isn't it also like they played?
Why does this movie go to such great lengths to set up these true and false barriers, repeatedly blurring the boundaries between true and false, and what is it really trying to say?
I'm afraid it's not just about love.
All the stories take place in the background of the earthquake, which highlights the fragility and preciousness of life, the fragility and preciousness of love, and "Lovers Under the Olive Tree" takes us to such a vague area, knowing that life is short, appreciating that life continues, and love is endless.
Life continues under the ambiguous, poetic suspense, and love blows like the wind of an olive grove.
The most real thing is the Z-shaped road.
"Where is my friend's home", that is the way to return the homework book, is the road of innocence, is the road of integrity.
"Born and Grows", the car struggled to climb the steep slope to visit the young actors of the year, which was the road of kindness and care.
"Lover Under the Olive Tree", Hussein rushed up the steep slope in one breath and caught up with Tahli, which is the road of hope and the road of true feelings.
A road, stringing together a country trilogy like a code, waiting for people to decipher it.