Slideshow
Marva Nabili’s
THE SEALED SOIL
Monday, April 21
8:00
NEW 4K RESTORATION
Iran, 1977
Directed by Marva Nabili
Starring Flora Shabaviz
In Farsi with English subtitles
Approx. 91 min. 4K DCP restoration.
“Eighteen-year-old Roo-Bekheir (Flora Shabaviz) lives in a southwest Iranian village of mud-walled huts and dirt-packed courtyards, where women cook on the ground amid roaming chickens. In static long shots inspired by the formal remove of Persian miniatures, we watch Roo-Bekheir go about her repetitive daily chores, carrying trays of dishes balanced on her head, sifting grain and harvesting plants. We hear about her rejecting one suitor after another. The village chief notes that women can no longer be forced into marriage, but the modern world of cars, new buildings, and Western clothes that encroaches on the community seems to offer little real change. Instead, Roo-Bekheir finds some release alone on a riverbank, where she removes her headscarf and undresses during a rainstorm. She faces away from the camera, silent and motionless, leaving us to imagine the sensuality and liberation she is experiencing. When she later erupts in a sudden, violent breakdown, the village concludes that she is possessed and arranges a ritual exorcism. Predictably, the earliest surviving Iranian feature directed by a woman, has never screened openly in its country of origin. " – Film Comment
Digitally restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Golden Globe Foundation, Century Arts Foundation, Farhang Foundation and Mark Amin. Restored from the 16mm original A/B negatives, color reversal internegative, magnetic track and optical track negative. Laboratory services by illuminate Hollywood, Corpus Fluxus, Endpoint Audio Labs, Audio Mechanics, Simon Daniel Sound. Special thanks to Thomas Fucci, Marva Nabili and Garineh Nazarian.
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