The House Is Black
The House Is Black
Directed by Forugh Farrokhzad • 1963 • 21m • ★ 7.4
Documentary
Original Title
خانه سیاه است
Director
Forugh Farrokhzad
Year
1963
Country
Iran
Language
Persian
leprosy
woman director
short film
Summary
In an isolated leprosy camp in northern Iran, the wounds inflicted on human flesh and the eerie silence of faith converge within the same frame. Female director Forugh Farrokhzad avoids aestheticizing the pain as she turns her camera toward people living in the shadow of the disease; instead, she captures their scarred faces and hands in all their raw, unvarnished reality. This short film clashes the concepts of ugliness and gratitude, inviting the viewer to a prolonged witnessing of an unsettling landscape. This struggle for existence, unfolding behind closed walls, weaves its way through daily rituals and gasps for breath, forming one of the most jarring corners of documentary cinema.
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