Sunday, 25 October 2015

The House is Black (1963)


☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½


The House is Black (1963) – F. Farrokhzad


The images are sometimes too much to bear, inside this leper colony in Iran.  Yet, they are somehow hauntingly beautiful and horrific at the same time.  Your heart goes out to these outcasts, as you imagine the rejection they must have felt from the rest of humanity.  However, the people here retain their dignity…through religion, through play, by the force of their spirit.  They thank their god for having eyes to see and ears to hear, even if we as viewers dwell on their sores, their deformities, their exile.  The editing here is fast (for the time) and we are besieged with images – some difficult to take, some uplifting, all humane.  The voiceover is lyrical and poetic (not descriptive) and this elevates the film to something more than a stark look at a difficult situation.


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