The House Is Black

It is 1962, in a leper colony in Iran. At first, the unflinching close-ups of malformed faces and limbs are alarming. But then the fragmentary black-and-white imagery seems calmly to invite us to seek out the beauty in these mutilations. Inevitable comparisons arise with the 1980 classic , which was also shot in black-and-white. We step into a leper colony and go with the flow of daily life for the lepers. Deliberately and sensitively, the camera documents in detail how the men, women and children lead their lives: at the market, eating, smoking and playing board games. How do these disfigured people feel? What is their story? What future do they have? Our questions are never answered, and we live only in the here and now, just like the lepers, uncertain of what is to come. No one is interviewed. Against this black-and-white background, the director recites melodious Persian religious texts and her own poetry. It all serves to create a surreal, slightly uneasy and sometimes oppressive atmosphere. The Society for Assisting Lepers commissioned the film, and the director’s intention was “to wipe out this ugliness and to relieve the victims.” The choice of title is explained in a moving scene towards the end of the film.