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Sadly Over-hyped

Pretty Good

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

"Khaneh siah ast" or "The House Is Black" is the only directorial effort from Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad. She made this 20-minute documentary in her 20s and died in her early 30 in a car accident. The film is over 50 years old when I am writing this and is exclusively in black and white. It shows us male and female people from all age groups who live together in a leper colony. The images are obviously shocking. There is a little bit of explanation early on as, back in the 60s, people were certainly even less familiar with leper than we are today and I dare say most people outside the medical profession do not really know a whole lot about it in 2014 either.For the whole film, the sick speak about their life in a very poetic way that you could be sure most of it was probably scripted, especially looking at the fact that most of them are really low in society and probably did not get a good education if they got any at all. That is also why I do not think this can be classified as a documentary. Their quotes hardly come from themselves. Apart from that, they are also saying their prayers to God. I personally thought this was more about shocking the audience with images than making a somewhat touching piece of movie-making. However, it is certainly positive as this film must have helped (and helps to this day) in making leper more known to people in Iran and around the world. There is not much focus on the people's every day life. It is really much more about how the illness changed them physically and about their words. In the end, we find out why the film is called what it is called. A bit of a random reference, but for me somehow it worked.

To begin with, I was only vaguely aware of this Iranian documentary (albeit one that is regularly featured in all-time best film lists, and which is why I got to it now) and unfamiliar with its country of origin's cinema at large. It is a purportedly educational yet necessarily off-putting look – in unflinching detail! – at a leper colony, where one is actually stunned to learn these still exist in our day and age! For the record, the movie I was most reminded of while watching this was Werner Herzog's similarly matter-of-fact and unsentimental (yet, likewise, understandably dispiriting) EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL (1970).While isolated, so as to have their disease contained, the members of the misshapen community involved are nevertheless seen going through many of the typical social functions – school, recreation, even praying! Whether the first (the film's very title coming up in an impromptu reply during class) and last (despite its striving to achieve a lyrical quality) among these are undertaken of their own volition is anybody's guess, indeed doubtful – since the former is basically futile and the latter not only ironic but downright cruel, if you ask me! With this in mind, it is clear that they enjoy themselves most in their leisure time, however they opt to spend it: amusingly, one man fancies himself a singer…even if he can only muster a loud racket that seems to exasperate his 'colleagues' as much as they do the viewer!

One must consider why the religious emphasis is there. Everyone in this film has a message; the Iranians are known for their no frills directness when it comes to film-making.What is Farrokhzad saying about religion?Additionally; is this film entirely about leprosy, or does it hint toward other kinds of corruption?Is the previous reviewer certain that there were scripted scenes? I admit it's been a while so I can't clearly remember; however another rule of Iranian film is that can be very hard to distinguish the scripted and the natural. If you want to test this, check out Kiarostami's wonderful "Close-up" or Samira Makhmalbaf's "Apple". The events are real as are the actors, beyond that...well just watch em. With your thinking hat on.OK i'm done.

`There is no shortage of ugliness in the world.' the opening voice-over states as we see a horribly disfigured woman staring into a mirror. And by the film's end, we truly get an understanding of what she means.`Khaneh siah ast' (The House is Black), written, directed and edited in 1963 by Forugh Farrokhzad is a brilliant piece of work done on an issue that has hardly been portrayed in any kind of film, fiction or non. Filmed in B&W on location somewhere on a Middle Eastern island, the film portrays a rapid series of events during the everyday lives of all of its inhabitants that are suffering from various stages of leprosy.Cinematographer Soleiman Minasian uses mainly natural light and captures the pure essence of what living with leprosy is actually like. It is very startling. All the more startling due to Farrokhzad's rapid editing and cutting and disorienting flash-pans. And although the film is a documentary, there are certain scenes, which are entirely fabricated and contrived. One scene in particular is an actual tracking shot through a classroom where there is a coherent edited sequence of dialogue spoken between a teacher and his student. And although no one in the film is an actor, the scene was indeed scripted.The reason the film is so brilliant is because Farrokhzad juxtaposes the images with extremely religious voice-over narration. Each individual that has leprosy prays to God and gives thanks for being alive in this world. It is harshly ironic that all living lepers are giving thanks and praise to a God that forces them to live through painful physical suffering everyday of their life.They say leprosy is a curable disease, however, the impact and feeling you get from experiencing this film, is not.