The House is Black is an empathetic portrait of a leper colony from Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad. Her work, both in film and poetry, has influenced everyone from Iranian New Wave master Abbas Kiarostami to French essay film pioneer Chris Marker. With The House is Black, Farrokhzad unflinchingly captures the world of a leper colony in Tabriz, Iran. She recites her own poetry over images of everyday life for a people shut away from society. Farrokhzad’s portrait highlights a world weighed down by tragedy yet uplifted by community. The result is a heartbreaking film that eschews condescension in favor of hard-won empathy.
Tag: IRAN
A documentary of the epic story of the weaving Chigh. Chigh is a kind of texture made from wood and osier that is made in the ilats of the west of Iran and is used for covering around their Siah-chadors (tents).
A thoughtful and emotionally challenging look at the lives of two children living in modern day Afghanistan, STRAY DOGS lifts the lid on what it is like living in the country, post-Taliban. The film focuses on a young brother and sister who are forced to share their incarcerated mother’s prison cell by night, but roam the streets during the day. For they are homeless; only allowed to stay within the prison’s confines after dark, the children are not permitted there during the day. Fed up with having to fend for themselves, and in a desperate bid to get locked up on a more permanent basis, the siblings concoct a cunning plan; using American cinema as a guide, they begin to perform robberies on the streets of Kabul.
Death of Yazdgerd, is a poetic and political work exploring the cruel and tragic dynamics of a class-based society. War is raging. King Yazdgerd’s body is discovered in a run-down mill in the Iranian desert. Charged with murder, the miller, his wife and his sickly daughter must tell their story to the commanders to escape torture and death. Who killed the King? Was Yazdgerd indeed the revered God-King, or a puny, immoral man caught in the destructive whirlwind of his times?
A child carrying a bread is going home but there is a frightening dog in an alley he needs to go through and he is too afraid to pass it alone.
Haji is severely traumatized by the war with Iraq. Back from the front, he’s unable to adapt to civilian life. Despite family opposition, his fiancée stands by him as together they challenge both the authority of family and state to lead their own lives.
Bahman Kiarostami’s charming documentary about mourners-for-hire who are called upon to attend funerals in Iran. With an understated, lighthearted style, Tabaki provides a fascinating view of a peculiar occupation within this religious culture, offering, in the process, an insightful portrait of the society as a whole.
A documentary film about a boys school in Iran. The film shows numerous, funny and moving interviews of many different young pupils of this school summoned by their superintendent for questions of discipline. The man is not severe, but clever and fair. He teaches loyalty, fellowship and righteousness to these boys. Besides these interviews, we see scenes of this school’s quotidian life.