The massive earthquake that ravaged the northern Guilan and Zanjan provinces in Iran that served as a setting for Abbas Kiarostami's 1987 film, Where is the Friend's Home? provides the inspiration for And Life Goes On... (a.k.a. Life, and Nothing More...). With over thirty thousand deaths and a few hundred surviving orphans, Kiarostami set out to find out the fates of the two young boys who starred in his first feature. His quest is semi-fictionalized in this work.

Whether you watch Zendegi edame darad (And Life Goes On...) as the second or third of Kiarostami's "Koker Trilogy" is irrelevant, as long as you begin with that 1987 film. Chronologically, And Life Goes On... (a.k.a. Life, and Nothing More...) follows the initial film three years later, immediately after the devastating earthquake while Through the Olive Trees and serves as a dramatic behind the scenes pseudo-documentary about the filming of And Life Goes On.... If that confuses, just watch the simple films and it'll all fit quite tightly. Indeed, the brief scene between Hossein and his new bride will become very familiar since the "making of documentary" goes through innumerable takes of this scene—and it's the only concrete clue that And Life Goes On... is scripted, and is not a straight documentary. So natural are Kiarostami's non-professional actors, that the line between fiction and non-fiction is continually blurred.

Within the first minute the stylistic camera work announces Kiarostami's presence—a static camera films through a tollbooth as the background radio narrates details of the Iranian earthquake. Cars pause and receive receipts from an unseen toll booth worker, until a recognizable face stops at the booth, and the camera climbs into the car with the actor playing the part of director (Farhad Kheradmand) and his son Puya (Buba Bayour) begin their trek towards Koker to seek the two boys who starred in Where is the Friend's Home? This device arms Kiarostami with all the ammunition he needs to develop the “plot” and interact with the various people he encounters along the way—"Which way to Koker?" opens the director's conversations, allowing glimpses of post-earthquake life as they proceed.

Characteristically, the long takes film the journey in virtually real time, and the pleasures arise intimately "insignificant" moments. Even Punya's recollection that Scotland was playing Brazil during the time of the earthquake sets up poignant future events where a displaced village continues to follow the World Cup. Punya's questions set up the dramatic situation, and before long he has to pee. The camera remains in the car but follows his small adventure up the barren desert hill to a lone tree before watching the young boy intently chasing and capturing a grasshopper. This leads to an oblique discussion about grasshopper migration and freedom that may also apply to the earthquake victims who must find ways to carry on.

Although one middle-aged woman despairs of her lost relatives, surprisingly most people the director encounters declare the disaster God's will and are moving on with their lives. Some question what they have done wrong to provoke God to punish them so, while another simply sees the earthquake as a "hungry wolf that devours everything in its path." Mostly, however, the people stoically realize that they must continue with life.

Houses reduced to rubble and boulder-crushed vehicles are shown, along with routine daily life. Despite the tragedy, spring-fed drinking water is offered the visitors; mothers and daughters continue to do the laundry; and children are scolded for misbehavior. One highlight occurs when the director picks up Mr. Ruhi, who had starred in Where is the Friend's Home? as a slow-walking hunchbacked man. Humorously carrying a urinal to illustrate the necessity for carrying on daily functions in the face of disaster, he illuminates Kiarostami's theme of blending reality and illusion by declaring that he didn't like how they forced him to look older in that film: "What kind of art is it that makes a man look older and uglier? To make a man younger and more beautiful is better art." Further embellishing the theme, Mr. Ruhi describes how his home in that first film wasn't his home and neither is the “home” they are taking him to in this film.

As with his other films, Kiarostami slowly seduces the audience by revealing the characters as real people with simple but provocative camera work. Without a long shot of the Iranian landscape along with the protagonist appearing as a tiny "God's eye view" speck, And Life Goes On... would lack the Kiarostami touch. The director remains true to his signature style with another beautifully composed ending scene that may not wrap up everything in one happy denouement, but after getting to know the locals, we feel satisfaction that they will continue to cope with whatever God or the “hungry wolves” dish out. We also crave more Kiarostami work and begin to understand why he is so highly regarded by his fellow filmmakers.