I quite enjoyed To the Ends of the Earth. If we're asking what it's about, I think that, in addition to what you said, it's also about how travel -- even the most contrived, commercialized travel specifically to make a tv documentary -- can involve at least a few moments of real encounter with another place, another culture, how something authentic can leak through.
How about my fan theory that in fact the last few scenes are not "reality" but her fantasy. There's something particularly in the fact that she can't get a phone signal at all in the hotel, even on the roof, but suddenly her boyfriend calls her and she has a long conversation.
At that point all problems are solved, director gone, fisherman cooperative, goat happy in the green hills... and she becomes Julie Andrews.
Have you seen the latter two films in the so-called Abbas Kiarostami Koker Trilogy, And Life Goes On/Life and Nothing Else and Through the Olive Trees? Those strike me as thematic and tonal parallels for this film, with the same combination of local color and metafiction.
I'm finding the latter film damn intriguing!
Not easy to get hold of right now but I can let you know where to find it.
Edit - Email sent
I quite enjoyed To the Ends of the Earth. If we're asking what it's about, I think that, in addition to what you said, it's also about how travel -- even the most contrived, commercialized travel specifically to make a tv documentary -- can involve at least a few moments of real encounter with another place, another culture, how something authentic can leak through.
How about my fan theory that in fact the last few scenes are not "reality" but her fantasy. There's something particularly in the fact that she can't get a phone signal at all in the hotel, even on the roof, but suddenly her boyfriend calls her and she has a long conversation.
At that point all problems are solved, director gone, fisherman cooperative, goat happy in the green hills... and she becomes Julie Andrews.
I'd have to watch the film again.
Have you seen the latter two films in the so-called Abbas Kiarostami Koker Trilogy, And Life Goes On/Life and Nothing Else and Through the Olive Trees? Those strike me as thematic and tonal parallels for this film, with the same combination of local color and metafiction.
I'll have to check them out, thanks for the indication
Majestic.
Thanks!