Rent And Life Goes On (1994)

Hope in the Rubble - And Life Goes On review by griggs

Someone recommended this to me today, and if I’d done even the most basic homework I’d have realised it follows Where Is the Friend’s House? Not that it makes much difference. Kiarostami isn’t the sort of director who demands prerequisites; he drops you into the landscape and trusts you to understand what matters.

The premise is disarmingly simple: a director driving back into an earthquake zone to see whether the two boys from his earlier film survived. In lesser hands it would become a catalogue of horrors. Instead, it turns into a wandering, oddly companionable road movie built from brief encounters, practical kindness, and the kind of straight-faced humour that surfaces only when things threaten to get too heavy.

What lingers are the small details — a cracked road, a half-fallen house, a child perched on rubble like it’s a playground. Kiarostami doesn’t force meaning on any of it; he just lets you watch people choosing to continue. And Life Goes On earns its hope quietly, through the simple fact that rebuilding begins long before the ground stops shaking.

Elegy for victims of an earthquake exploring the responsibilities we have for others - And Life Goes On review by tm

a complex film which breaks the fourth wall on occasion, reflects on accountability, responsibility, identity, acting and loyalty.

should we feel responsible for those who suffer far away?

what does news reporting really tell us about the visceral impact of a natural calamity?

It was Ok but I thought it could have been much better. Although I really wanted to know more about the characters in the first film and so was committed to watching it, I felt short changed and that so much more could have been done. I think the auteur missed a huge opportunity by just using his trip there as a facile vehicle for carrying his film; lazy but good.