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The Sealed Soil & The House Is Black (15) + Introduction

Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave

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A woman wearing red, crouching amongst the trees by a river.

The two female-directed films that bookend Iranian New Wave, marking the beginning and final years of the movement, are now claimed as some of the greatest films of their time.

Among the very few feature and documentary films directed by women in Iran before the 1979 revolution, the only two that exist in complete form are poet Forough Farrokhzad’s The House Is Black – a short documentary about fighting leprosy that became one of the first international successes of the Iranian New Wave – and Marva Nabili’s recently rediscovered The Sealed Soil, a restrained rebellion against patriarchy shot in Iran shortly before the revolution. 

Tragically, both filmmakers’ careers were interrupted: Farrokhzad died in 1967, at the age of 32, and Nabili moved to the United States. If The House Is Black merges poetry and cinema like no other film, The Sealed Soil employs long shots and a static camera, with Nabili citing Persian miniature art and director Robert Bresson as influences. In both cases, the results are astonishing.

Tagged with: Cinema Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave

Please note: The Sealed Soil includes a brief scene with a depiction of animal cruelty. The House is Black contains scenes and outdated language which some viewers may find distressing.

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‘The Sealed Soil is both a moving portrait of a tragic time and a significant piece of feminist work‘
Hyphen
‘The House Is Black is a poetic documentary classic‘
The Guardian

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