The House Is Black

Khaneh siah ast

Director: Forough Farrokhzad
Country: Iran

1962 | 22 min. | Persian
Subtitles: English, German
FSK | Nicht geprüft / No clearance

Screenplay_ Forough Farrokhzad Camera_ Soleiman Minassian Rights_ Cineteca di Bologna

A leper colony as a setting for the beauty of man. A groundbreaking fusion of harsh reality and poetry in both content and form.

An Iranian leper colony at the beginning of the 1960s. Uncompromisingly, in grainy black and white images, the film confronts us with the deformed bodies and faces of the inhabitants. But accompanied by passages from the Old Testament, the Koran and poems by the director herself, it soon leaves the initial shock effect behind. We begin to see through the deviant surface and the beauty of the common human becomes visible. The sick, rejected by society, regain their dignity. It is greater than the misery.

In terms of both content and form, this documentary is a film-historical sensation.


›The House Is Black‹ will be shown as the opening film at all screenings of ›Black Girl‹.

Director

›The House is Black‹ is the only film by the poet Forugh Farrochzad (1935-1967), who is one of the most important representatives of Iranian modernism. The influence of the film extends to the present day. It premiered at the International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, where it won the prize for best documentary.

Screenings