The acclaimed Iranian documentary “The House Is Black,” directed by Tehran- Forrokhzad, will be screened in Iranian cinemas on Monday.
The film screening, set at 5pm, comes from the Film Museum’s Documentary Night Program, Mehr reported.
A review session follows in front of veteran documentary director Pirooz Kalantari and film critic Parviz Jahed.
The film focuses on the human condition and beauty of creation, watching life and suffering in the leprosy colony.
“The House Is Black” finds unexpected bounty that most people think can see. Its residents live, worship, learn, perform, and celebrate in a self-contained community separated from other parts of the world. Meanwhile, the kids go to school. Some of them are affected by the disease, at least now, at present, while others look healthy.
Through antiminattic narration drawn from the Old Testament, the Quran, and obscure images refusing to look away from the filmmaker’s own poetry and physical differences, Falovzad creates a deep, empathetic portrait of those who have been driven out by society.
A series of polite black and white shots give you transformation in your own beauty, blending every day’s moments of pain, despair, warmth and joy.
The film features footage from the colony of Bababagi Hospice Leper. It was the only film she directed before her death in 1967. After filming the film, she adopted a child from the colony of her son Hossain.
In 2019, a restored film print debuted at the Venice International Film Festival.
After a stay in Europe in 1958, Forugh Farrokhzad, best known as a poet, returned to Iran to meet filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan. She worked in his film studio. There he had the opportunity to work as an editor of his documentary before working with a leprosy charity to direct “The House Is Black.”
The film received little attention outside of Iran when it was released, but has since been recognized as an Iranian cinema landmark. In 1963, the film won the Grand Prize for Category Documentary at Oberhausen, an International Short Film Festival in West Germany.
The Iranian Film Museum is located in Tehran’s upscale Bagh Eveldouz district on Varias Street near Tajlish Square. Participation in this program is free.
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