The Sealed Soil Film 3 of 1,000
Directed by Marva Nabili • 1977 • Iran
Starring Flora Shabaviz
The earliest complete surviving feature film directed by an Iranian woman, Marva Nabili’s THE SEALED SOIL chronicles the resistance of a young woman (Flora Shabavis) to her forced marriage, a defiance quickly misinterpreted by her family as demonic possession. Breathtaking in its directorial sophistication and restraint and unblinking in its critique of institutionalized misogyny, this too-long-underseen masterstroke of world cinema stands alongside Chantal Akerman’s JEANNE DIELMAN both in its formal rigor and its quietly radical vision of female rebellion.
Starring Flora Shabaviz
The earliest complete surviving feature film directed by an Iranian woman, Marva Nabili’s THE SEALED SOIL chronicles the resistance of a young woman (Flora Shabavis) to her forced marriage, a defiance quickly misinterpreted by her family as demonic possession. Breathtaking in its directorial sophistication and restraint and unblinking in its critique of institutionalized misogyny, this too-long-underseen masterstroke of world cinema stands alongside Chantal Akerman’s JEANNE DIELMAN both in its formal rigor and its quietly radical vision of female rebellion.
This was a revelatory watch a little whiles ago, one of my favorite cyber friends played a part in me embracing the Iranian New Wave, I had collected close to 50 films, about 20 I would consider faves, and many more remain unseen as of yet, either Criterion will show me some, or i'd learn of more available elsewhere, there is a purity in these films not seen elsewhere hardly, no objectifying of women which is a western trait, we are immersed here in a dream like reality, it all seems to be in slow motion, and is therefore like seeing a living painting unfold.
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46-50, M