# And Life Goes On (زندگی و دیگر هیچ)
**And Life Goes On** (زندگی و دیگر هیچ, *Zendegi va digar hich*; also released as **Life and Nothing More**) is a 1992 Iranian docufiction (a film blending documentary and fictional elements) feature directed by [Abbas Kiarostami](https://www.edgepedia.org/abbas-kiarostami) in which a film director and his young son drive through the region devastated by the 1990 earthquake in northern Iran, searching for the two child actors of Kiarostami's earlier film *Where Is the Friend's House?*[1](https://www.kiarostami.org/fa/film/and-life-goes-on) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) • [3](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/and-life-goes-on-aka-life-and-nothing-more-2022-09). It runs 95 minutes, is shot in color at 1.66:1 in Persian, and opened the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival as the second film of the Koker trilogy.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) • [4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Native title | زندگی و دیگر هیچ (*Zendegi va digar hich*); alternate English title *Life and Nothing More*[1](https://www.kiarostami.org/fa/film/and-life-goes-on) • [3](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/and-life-goes-on-aka-life-and-nothing-more-2022-09) |
| Director and cast | Written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami; Farhad Kheradmand plays the film director, with Pouya Payvar, Buba Bayour, and Hocine Rifahi[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) • [3](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/and-life-goes-on-aka-life-and-nothing-more-2022-09) |
| Production | Iran, 1992 (some records date it 1991), 95 minutes, color, 1.66:1, Persian; shot in Koker, Gilan Province[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) • [1](https://www.kiarostami.org/fa/film/and-life-goes-on) • [5](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb17090422d) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/) |
| Backdrop | The 1990 earthquake in northern Iran that killed over 50,000 people, with its epicenter near Koker[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) |
| Festival | Opened the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) |
| Trilogy position | Second film of the Koker trilogy, after *Where Is the Friend's House?* (1987)[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) |
| Restoration | Criterion spine #991, with a new 2K digital restoration and a commentary by Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosenbaum[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) |
## Spoilers
### Synopsis
The film follows a director, nominally Kiarostami himself but played by an actor, and his young son as they drive from Tehran into northern Iran after the 1990 earthquake, looking for the two boys who acted in *Where Is the Friend's House?*[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/). The journey is structured as a series of encounters: the pair navigate destroyed roads, ask directions, and meet survivors, including a young couple who marry after the catastrophe.[7](https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474275729.ch-091) The search itself is a fictional framing built on a real journey: after the earthquake, with telecommunications cut, Kiarostami and his son drove to the region to learn whether the child actors, brothers Babak and Ahmad, had survived.[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/)
The film opens with a radio voice announcing the enormous magnitude of the disaster; scholarship notes that the couple's marriage is shown but the birth of a child is not, keeping the emphasis on continuation rather than completion.[7](https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474275729.ch-091)
## Cast and crew
Kiarostami used nonprofessional actors to restage real events. Farhad Kheradmand plays the film director, Pouya Payvar plays Pouya, and Buba Bayour and Hocine Rifahi appear in supporting roles.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) • [3](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/and-life-goes-on-aka-life-and-nothing-more-2022-09) The film was photographed by Homayoun Payvar and edited by Kiarostami and Changiz Sayad.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) The Korean Film Archive records the producer as the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children & Young Adults.[8](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/27834)
The casting deliberately blurs the line between performers and survivors: villagers appear as versions of themselves, and in the fiction villagers recall having been extras in the earlier film.[3](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/and-life-goes-on-aka-life-and-nothing-more-2022-09) • [9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/life_and_nothing_more)
## Production and background
In 1990 an earthquake devastated northern Iran, killing over 50,000 people; its epicenter was near Koker, the village where Kiarostami had shot *Where Is the Friend's House?* (1987).[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) IMDb's account gives the toll as 50,000 dead, including 20,000 children, and says Kiarostami made the drive with his 11-year-old son Bahman.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/)
**Origin of the film.** Kiarostami traced the idea to a real encounter: a young man he met who had married immediately after the disaster prompted him to return and make the film; IMDb adds that the idea crystallized after he told the story to an audience in Germany.[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/) The film was shot in Koker, in [Gilan Province](https://www.edgepedia.org/gilan-province).[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/)
The production's restaging practices became part of the film's meaning. Locals reenacted earthquake scenes but refused to wear dirty clothes, arriving dressed in their finery; Kiarostami accepted, saying, "Why not? We're not portraying reality; we're making a film."[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) The blend is visible on screen: the devastation seen from the moving car is real, while the lamentations are probably staged.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/)
## Place in the Koker trilogy
The film is the middle panel of the Koker trilogy. *Where Is the Friend's House?* (1987) established the village and its schoolchildren, and *And Life Goes On* (1992) returns to the same setting after the earthquake.[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) Within the trilogy it is the more self-reflexive entry, focused on the practice of filmmaking itself: the director carries a French poster of *Where Is the Friend's House?*, and the people he meets discuss their own role in that film.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/life_and_nothing_more)
## Style and themes
Jonathan Rosenbaum, coauthor of the book *Abbas Kiarostami*, described it as "a picaresque narrative with a profound sense of presence and a philosophical sense of the long shot" that occasionally calls to mind [Jacques Tati](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacques-tati).[3](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/and-life-goes-on-aka-life-and-nothing-more-2022-09)
Its visual motifs became Kiarostami signatures. The search leads the characters off the road onto zigzagging dirt pathways cut into the hillsides, an image that recurred in Kiarostami's later work.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/life_and_nothing_more) The title names the film's theme: scholarship reads it as an expression of life's constant and inevitable flow, which continues its course in spite of mourning and catastrophe.[7](https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474275729.ch-091)
## Reception and legacy
The film opened the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) IMDb records one win and three nominations in total.[6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/) The film has remained in circulation through archival exhibition and home video: the Harvard Film Archive screened a 95-minute DCP sourced from Janus Films in 2022, and the Criterion Collection issued a new 2K digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack as spine #991, accompanied by a commentary from Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa and Jonathan Rosenbaum.[3](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/and-life-goes-on-aka-life-and-nothing-more-2022-09) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on)
## By the numbers
Records disagree on the production year. The [Bibliothèque nationale de France](https://www.edgepedia.org/bibliotheque-nationale-de-france) and the Korean Film Archive date the work to 1991, while the Kiarostami Foundation gives the Persian production year ۱۳۷۱ (1371, corresponding to 1992), the year also used by [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion), ACMI, and the Harvard Film Archive.[5](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb17090422d) • [8](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/27834) • [1](https://www.kiarostami.org/fa/film/and-life-goes-on) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) The runtime is consistently given as 95 minutes.[1](https://www.kiarostami.org/fa/film/and-life-goes-on) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on) The film's first theatrical release in France was on October 21, 1992.[5](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb17090422d) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/) The earthquake that frames the story killed over 50,000 people according to ACMI, Harvard, and Criterion; IMDb specifies 50,000, including 20,000 children.[4](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/)
## References
1. [زندگی و دیگر هیچ, Kiarostami Foundation](https://www.kiarostami.org/fa/film/and-life-goes-on)
2. [And Life Goes On (1992), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/28639-and-life-goes-on)
3. [And Life Goes On… AKA Life and Nothing More, Harvard Film Archive](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/and-life-goes-on-aka-life-and-nothing-more-2022-09)
4. [And Life Goes On (1992), ACMI](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-films-of-abbas-kiarostami/and-life-goes-on-1992/)
5. [Notice de titre conventionnel "Zendegi edamé darad (film)", Bibliothèque nationale de France](https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb17090422d)
6. [And Life Goes On (1992), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105888/)
7. [On Evidence: Life and Nothing More, by Abbas Kiarostami (book chapter, DOI)](https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474275729.ch-091)
8. [그리고 삶은 계속된다, Korean Film Archive](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/27834)
9. [And Life Goes On..., Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/life_and_nothing_more)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s › Drama films early 1990s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license