Kiarostami film teaches good life lesson for COVID-19 pandemic

Award-winning Iranian film ‘And Life Goes on’ by mega director Abbas Kiarostami conveys an inspirational message for the importance of life despite difficulties.

While the movie was made in 1992, present-day viewers in 2021 still can relate to the messages of love and hope conveyed through every scene.

The flick follows the story of a director who visits an earthquake-hit province in Iran in search of actors who appeared in one of Kiarostami’s previous movies. To his astonishment, the man sees how life still goes on despite the loss of lives in the province.

In one of the sequences, the director asks a passerby why he still watches TV while many people have already lost their lives.

The passerby replies, “The truth is that I am in mourning. I have lost my little sister and three nieces and nephews. But what can we do? The World Cup is once every four years. This is life and we should watch football on TV.”

Such astonishing dialogue in the flick is very much related to our present situations in life after the pandemic. Many people have lost their loved ones across the world, but that is life and the show must go on!

'And Life Goes on' has been featured and acclaimed at a number of international film festivals. After the death of Kiarostami, several fests screened the flick in memory of the great Iranian director. 

AG/AG