Kiarostami, ever the trickster, refused to answer. But the beauty lies in the ambiguity. The final shot is shot from the director’s camera position—the camera that was filming the movie-within-the-movie. That means we are not seeing reality; we are seeing the footage of the fictional film. In other words, the happy ending (if it is happy) isn't "real life" for Hossein and Tahereh; it is a take that the director can choose to use in his film.
What follows is a static, long shot filmed from the director's camera position. We see an impossibly green hillside, a winding dirt path, and two tiny figures: Tahereh walking ahead, Hossein running to catch up. He reaches her. They walk together. He gesticulates, pleading. She ignores him. Through the olive trees- Abbas Kiarostami
But then—and this is the miracle—she stops. She turns. She lifts her hand to her head, adjusts her white headscarf. Then, in the most subtle, un-cinematic gesture in film history, she looks back at him. And she runs slowly . She runs back to him. She passes him and continues up the hill. Hossein, stunned, turns to follow. Kiarostami, ever the trickster, refused to answer
The most revealing scene occurs during the rehearsal of the "carrying the wife" sequence. The director needs Tahereh to look at Hossein with "loving eyes" as he carries her over the stream. But Tahereh, in real life, refuses to even look at Hossein. The director tries to coax her, then demands, then finally gives up. He tells the actors to simply go through the motions. Kiarostami seems to be asking: Can you fake love? If you perform the actions of love enough times, does love emerge? Or is the performance a lie that reveals a deeper truth? That means we are not seeing reality; we
