The House Is Black (1963)
4.1 of 5 from 49 ratings
0h 20min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- A revelation of staggering force, lyrically composed by one of the leading poets of the 20th century, Forough Farrokhzad. Her first and only film, it depicts the lives and bodies of people tragically deformed by leprosy. A film of stirring and powerful images, and a beautifully, tragically poetic narration that heavily influenced the modern Iranian cinema of Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
- Actors:
- Forugh Farrokhzad, Ebrahim Golestan, Hossein Mansouri
- Directors:
- Forugh Farrokhzad
- Producers:
- Ebrahim Golestan
- Narrated By:
- Forugh Farrokhzad, Ebrahim Golestan
- Writers:
- Forugh Farrokhzad
- Aka:
- Khaneh siah ast
- Genres:
- Documentary, Special Interest
- Countries:
- Iran
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Reviews (1) of The House Is Black
The Compassionate Gaze - The House Is Black review by griggs
Twenty-two minutes is all The House Is Black needs to knock the wind out of you. Set inside an Iranian leper colony, it sounds like the sort of thing you brace yourself for, yet Forough Farrokhzad approaches it with startling tenderness. Her camera refuses both pity and spectacle. Instead, it finds faces, gestures, small moments of stubborn life.
The poetry and narration could have tipped into pretension, but it doesn’t. It lands like a quiet moral challenge: look properly, and keep looking. By the end, the film feels less like reportage and more like a humane act of witness—gentle, furious, and somehow hopeful.
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