The House Is Black (1963) User Reviews

Takes you to a place no one will normally see.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 8/10 · 18 June 2011]

Quite surprising to see a documentary like this coming from the country Iran. You wouldn't think they would be too happy of showing leper patients and colonies to the entire world but yet this documentary managed to get made and released and is still globally considered to be an important one and is seen as the beginning of Iranian new wave.

It isn't really a documentary that tries to tell or story or gets a point across but it's more one that simply shows you things with its images. The visuals tell all you need to know. It shows the effects of leprosy on people of all ages and in all its various stages, also in its most gruesome and devastating forms.

It still does provide some information on the disease, to learn the Iranian people about it and make them aware of the decease and the fact that there are leper colonies in the country, in which people are living a normal as possible life and are also receiving treatment and going to school.

In that regard this is also somewhat of a more hopeful documentary, rather than a depressing one that shows you unhappy and incredibly sick or suffering people, who are waiting for their deaths. The documentary even makes it very clear that the decease is indeed curable and is not something that is inherited, so it's something that can be banned out completely with time, when taken the right precautions.

The hopefulness and thankfulness gets also illustrated by the many Koran lines that got put over the documentary and were delivered by the people with leprosy. In it they thank their God for everything they have. Or is there perhaps some reversed deeper meaning to it, trying to make a statement about the treatment of leper sufferers and the ruling power that puts them in these colonies. But this is something we often assume is the case with any movie/documentary coming out from a country that at the time suffers from an oppressing power or government. Perhaps we shouldn't read too much into it and simply appreciate the documentary for what it clearly is on its surface. Still the movie its very last shot makes me think it was a sort of a protest movie as well.

But even when you don't get that out of this documentary or don't want to read too much into things, you should be able than more to appreciate this documentary, since of the entire way it got shot and told. It has some great, beautiful, black & white cinematography, as well as a pleasant quick editing style and directing approach by female director Forugh Farrokhzad, who was better known as an important poet, during and after her lifetime, which ended abruptly in a road accident, only a couple of years after this movie.

An unique watch into a leper colony.

8/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

It's actually about leprosy...

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 25 August 2014]

I noticed some reviewers thought that MAYBE this film is about something other than its obvious subject, leprosy. Well, after seeing it, I think it's about leprosy. Sure, there's a bit more to it than that, but the film really does seem to be about lepers.

As the film progresses, various Muslim prayers and quotes from the Koran are read either by the narrator or by some of the subjects in the film. These are all about beauty and grace of God and are a sharp contrast to the lepers you see throughout the film. Although they appear very pitiful, most seem rather happy, though the film doesn't appear to try to say 'hey, it's great to be a leper'--more that in this day of medical miracles, Hansen's Disease (leprosy) IS curable and it's a horrible thing that so many go untreated. Forugh Farrokhzad (who wrote, directed and appears in the film) does not discuss WHY so many in her native Iran were untreated at the time--just that there is a SHARP contrast between the goodness of God and the plight of these people.

This film is unpleasant and will make you think. However, it's a very well made film--one that strikes the viewer with sadness and forces you to look into the ugly face of the illness.

A Wiseman-esque documentary in a country that needs more cinematic attention

[StevePulaski · 9/10 · 27 January 2014]

Even with the high popularity of foreign cinema amongst certain groups of cinephiles, I still can't help but feel one of the many countries to get shafted is Iran and its cinematic efforts. Many countries have had some kind of "New Wave" movement in cinema, where age-old, traditionalist ideas are broken and more daring, unconventional works begin to populate the cinematic market, and Iran's New Wave seems to have gotten greatly shortchanged to being a footnote. For one thing, I consistently find myself being impressed with Iranian filmmaking, as I find that for many different audiences, especially American, it offers a window to a country many people unfairly stereotype or simplify, almost as if those residing in the country are useless subhumans. Furthermore, one of the first films in Iran's New Wave, which started in the early 1960's, was Forough Farrokhzad's twenty-minute short film The House is Black, a somber, somewhat poetic documentary fixated around the Behkadeh Raji leper colony, the first of its kind in Iran. Farrokhzad films various patients in this leper colony, with occasional narrations talking about the treatment for the disease and how these colonies - while initially seeming like isolationist practices - have actually helped out in treating this disease. Leprosy is a condition that greatly affects the skin, can result in the numbing of senses, the deterioration of your immune system, and even body parts like toes and fingers to shorten and become stunted. While it's an ugly disease, Farrokhzad dares explore the beauty of human condition in The House is Black, placing a magnifying glass on this specific colony, while emphasizing that there is all different kinds of beauty in the human race. Punctuated by readings of the Old Testament, the Muslim holy-book the Qur'an, and even original poetry by Farrokhzad, The House is Black treads similar ground to the lengthy, American-made documentaries by industry-veteran Frederick Wiseman, who has erected his career off of observational documentaries on some of the most elusive institutions such as a mental hospital, a horse-racing track, and institutes that help the mentally-handicapped. Here is a film that kicks off a colossal, revolutionary movement in cinema and can be talked about on a level that isn't simply adhering to its technical innovations but its story and its commentary on human beauty and the diversity that plagues it.

Directed by: Forough Farrokhzad.

A brief glimpse of life on a leper colony.

[ltanner-1 · 16 April 2003]

`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.

The Miracle of the World, Even in Extrem Ugliness

[p_radulescu · 10/10 · 25 March 2010]

It was the only movie made by Forough Farrokhzad.

A documentary of 20 minutes length; actually it is a documentary only at the first level of meaning: the disturbing images from a leper colony are meditated in verses that partner what's flowing on the screen. Fragments from Psalms, from Koran, from her own poetry. And her stanzas, sometimes in sync with the images, some times in counterpoint, always challenging the versets from the sacred books. One of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, that's what I believe Forough Farrokhzad is.

This movie is a cinematic poem: empathy for the extreme suffering, desolation that we cannot escape from our condition, and, in the same time, awe in face of the beauty of creation.

I think the key of the movie is done by two verses:

Who is this in hell Praising you, O Lord?

The hell is also part of the world; and it is ultimately beautiful because world is beautiful.

This is extraordinary here in the movie: the subtle impulse to see the Universe as beautiful in all its dimensions, even in its ugliest expressions - to see the splendor of the human condition, even in its most horrible shape.

Or maybe the verses tell us something slightly different: as they are in turn fearful, desolate, bitter, pessimistic, sarcastic against God and praising God, it is here the honesty and the courage of the poet to recognize having all these contradictory feelings. And this speaks indeed about the splendor of the human condition: to encompass everything, to assume all contradictions, to be their sovereign - as the Universe is.

Don't be too quick to read this film.

[evolv · 10/10 · 28 March 2006]

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.

Reel Look: 'The House is Black'

[JosephPezzuto · 8/10 · 4 February 2015]

"There is no shortage of ugliness in the world. If man closed his eyes to it, there would be even more." The life of Forugh Farrokhzād, Iranian poet and director, ended tragically too soon at the age of thirty-two concerning a car accident to avoid hitting a school bus, swerving her Jeep into a stone wall and dying before she could reach the hospital. A female divorcée writing controversial Persian poetry with a robust voice of feminism, her work was banned for more than a decade due to the Islamic Revolution. Upon eventually meeting filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan in search of a job from returning to Iran after spending nine months in Europe, she published two more volumes before traveling to Tebriz, the most populated city northwest of Iran, to make a film about Iranians suffering from leprosy. But does a short film such as this display more or less of a powerful message in the time it is given? Let's take a look.

Titled 'Kẖạneh sy̰ạh ạst‎' or 'The House is Black', this twenty-minute film (narrated by Farrokhzād and Golestane) was made in 1963 went on to win several international awards. The film took twelve days to shoot, and the twenty-seven-year-old Farrokhzād became attached to Hossein Mansouri, the child of two lepers, of whom she adopted. Spliced with her narrations from the Old Testament, the Koran and her own poetry, the film was based on the Behkadah Raji colony and remains her only film she directed before her death in 1967. Reviewer Eric Henderson described the film: "One of the prototypal essay films, 'The House is Black' paved the way for the Iranian New Wave". Digging deep to unearth the yearnings of hopeless hearts within the confines of the human spirit, the film relents in holding back to show us in what society has deemed ugly to focus rather on the human condition and the beauty of creation. 'The House is Black' appears easy to summarize but difficult to watch and discuss afterwards. Farrokhzād took a daring risk in filming the shunned outcasts living a day in the life of an ostracized colony - children tossing a plastic ball around a courtyard, a veiled woman looking into a mirror, applying mascara inside her only working eyelid, a shrivel-faced man smoking out of the orifice of his exposed nasal passage devoid of its cartilage, crusted scabrous stumps where important appendages have detached, flies buzzing- are all shown in bleak, naked honesty to the viewers at hand. Hard to watch but short enough to get its point across, it challenges its audience to evoke and awaken new and subconscious concepts of thought and discussion upon viewing: here in the most quintessential places of spectacular suffering whereas some viewers may find the images of these individuals and their lives revolting must look deeper to taste the true flavor of this film and its powerful message therein.

Brief though uncomfortably testing, it demands we look beyond the external in bringing to light the true incarceration of these human souls of whom allow their souls to inwardly shine rather than refusing to be squelched by the turmoils of life and the harsh rebuke of others. Harrowing, horrifying but artfully constructed, the film plays out as one of Farrokhzād's poems and possibly as a whispered prayer.

An artistic and poetic masterpiece.

[brianberta · 10/10 · 6 March 2020]

This short makes my top 30 favorite films of all time. I didn't expect to love it as much as I did when I first saw it considering how poor the quality of the film is (in fact, there are a couple points where I can't make out the subtitles in the film due to how they blend in with the background). Given this, what did it do to impress me so much?

The line "Leprosy is not incurable" is repeated twice throughout an opening sequence which states facts about leprosy, almost as if to make sure the meaning of that line isn't lost concerning the grisly images we see of the people with the disease. Considering how the narrator points out how other people with the disease were cured when treated for it, this monologue also indicates that all the people we see suffering in the film could be cured of this disease. It's just that the government failed to take care of them as, instead of solving the problem, they herded them into the colony documented in the short, leaving them to further deteriorate. Instead of this scene coming off as preachy, this unspoken message is implied rather than directly stated, making for a really powerful scene. Regardless of whether you pick up on this implication or not, it still manages to get under your skin.

Farrokhzad also does a great job at exploring the ironies of the daily lives of the people in the colony, specifically with religion. Multiple sequences indicate that religion is a major part of their cultures. In one scene, a group of kids thank God for giving them hands, eyes, and ears - features which many people in the colony don't have. In another powerful moment, a man holds his withered hands in the air and refers to hands while reciting a prayer. This is followed by a sequence which cuts between a group of people practicing religion and several shots of people with deformed body parts which were brought about due to the disease, in turn creating tension with this editing technique. The viewer can't help but wonder why all these people thank God for giving them gifts which many of them don't have. It seems likely that religion is an abstract concept in their lives and they don't think much about the words and prayers they say.

In addition, a few sequences in the film stick out to me as especially powerful. The first of which shows a couple women putting on makeup and brushing their hair. This scene shows how, in spite of their facial and bodily features, many of the people in the colony still make an effort to look "beautiful", as if their goals are to connect with their past lives or to find light in such a depressing environment. Another scene shows a group of boys playing ball together. Unlike a number of the older people we see in the colony, their mobility doesn't seem to be effected by their disease. Despite this though, the grotesque facial features of a number of them are hard to ignore and, considering how the shot which immediately follows this sequence shows a man with one leg slowly walk down a path with the help of crutches, the short seems to suggest that those boys will grow up with further suffering and that they won't be able to experience moments like this unless they're cured of their disease (one effective shot which occurs earlier in the film shows a man giving his crutch to a boy to play with). One final scene worth mentioning is the classroom scene at the end. Something about this scene, specifically some of the answers the boys give to their teacher, makes it feel staged. It just seems too suited for the messages Farrokhzad wants to send to have naturally occurred. While I usually find staged scenes like this to be jarring in documentaries, I didn't mind it so much in here as it's still able to make for a devastating critique of religion.

Overall, this is a perfect short. Instead of solely raising awareness for the issue documented in it, Farrokhzad has several artistic points which she incorporates into the dialogue and the visuals of the film quite flawlessly as many of them are subtle or implied rather than directly stated. Sadly, Farrokhzad died shortly after this film was released, making this the only film she directed. Who knows what else she could've given us? However, this film will forever stand as a masterpiece to me and, if you can get by the occasional issues with the subtitles, you're in for a great treat with this one.

Portrayal of a secluded society

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 25 December 2014]

"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.

You, the living!

[XxEthanHuntxX · 9/10 · 9 August 2021]

Every man is as ugly as the latter in the eyes of a beast. On the outside we are all humans. Inwardly we are all humans. Human suffering is inevitable, thus universal. As well as happiness.

The House Is Black

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 19 July 2016]

This 20 minute short black-and-white Persian film is one I found in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I knew nothing about, especially with the simple but intriguing title. Basically this real-life film set in in Tebriz, Iran focuses on a leprosy colony, and also focuses on the human condition and the beauty of creation. Many of the lepers in the colony have become facially deformed, their fingers and toes have withered away with the chronic disease, and they have become almost forgotten souls. Throughout the film there are quotes read by the narrator, director Forough Farrokhzad, of passages from the Old Testament, the Koran and her own poetry, religion and gratitude play very big parts for the lepers. The title it should be mentioned is a scene near the end, where a teacher asks students to write down a sentence with the word "house" in it, and one of the lepers writes on the blackboard "the house is black", this is probably an indication of seclusion. This intimate film really hits home with distress caused by the leprosy, and digs deep into the heart of hopelessness within the human spirit. This film did not get a lot of attention when it was first released, but it has since become something of a landmark in Iranian film, a most interesting documentary. Very good!

Alireza.Akhlaghi.Official

[alireza-akhlaghi84 · 8/10 · 18 February 2019]

Masterpiece is the basis of a documentary of its time to this day. Therefore, Iran's documentary career honor the backing of this work. Although successful movies have been seen in the Iranian documentary cinema from the first to present day, the collaboration of Ebrahim Golestan and Dear Forough Farrokhzad with documentary subjects has largely distinguished this film. The documentary refers to a place where lepers people are taken from quarantined villagers. The colony of lepers living together in an enclosed environment. The most important thing in the audience's beliefs, as the name suggests, is the mere darkness of the world of leprosy, but with a particular look it can be concluded that the general documented theme is life expectancy. This look can be viewed from a more in-depth angle at the wedding, kids' play and classroom. Because they laugh, despite physical problems, they play and even get married. In any case, we can not rule out that the glass of water, in addition to half empty, has full half. Forough Farrokhzad have lived for about ten days in order to accompany and coordinate of filming, and this represents a great spirit and professional approach. Signs indicate that the documentary has the 19th place among the fifty documentary titles in the world, in the site and sond, which is typically a special art work for Iran.

THE HOUSE IS BLACK {Short} (Forugh Farrokhzad, 1963) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 10 January 2014]

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!

They have more than we realize at first

[jouler500-art · 7/10 · 10 August 2014]

Despite their suffering and disfigurement the people in the film are shown to be normal in most respects. They dance, exercise, sing, read out loud, go to school, receive treatment, have families, play with their kids and do all the things people without leprosy do. They are an isolated community however but due to the large numbers of them, we can see that they also have a sense of community.

Seeing their diseased bodies is distressing until we realize that even to have this type of life is better than no life at all. The reading from the Koran which is lifted from the Bible speaks of God making us and what a miracle that in itself is. So despite their severe shortcomings, they too have the joys of life.

A Tough Movie

[boblipton · 6/10 · 15 October 2020]

This one is a tough movie to watch. It's a documentary about a leper colony, and ugliness abounds. It reminds me of the executives telling Sully that he doesn't know anything about misery. I do know about misery. I had a miserable childhood..... no one's fault, just my nature. As an adult, I've been depressed for almost forty years. I was a slave in Egypt, and a third of my family didn't get out of Europe before the Holocaust...and I've spoken with some of them: dozens of folks with blue numbers tattooed on an arm.

I live in a country that has largely eliminated absolute poverty.... I write as someone whose father's father's father starved to death in Russia. Yet, if I may say so without breaking the rules about politics, we seem to be killing ourselves over who gets the enormous wealth we have built up over the last few centuries.

So I understand misery. I cannot bear to watch the poor, bedraggled people in this movie, especially when they manage to grasp a few seconds of happiness.

It's a well done, tough movie. I need to watch a comedy.

Legends have been handed down from the 1300's and 1400's . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 26 October 2020]

. . . around some regions which have since developed into nations of the Civilized World about the fleeting existence of Medieval "Leper Colonies" Way Back When. However, now--during Mankind's Modern Film Age--Iran (aka, Persia) seems to be unique in harboring such an anachronistic antiquity, THE HOUSE IS BLACK reveals. In a related matter, one can easily imagine that if FREAKS had been T. Browning's initial film, it also would have been his ONLY flick. The same goes for Mike Cimino and HEAVEN'S GATE. Ditto Mel Gibson and HOWARD THE DUCK. Not surprisingly, then, when BLACK's extremist film maker offered this Ode to Leprosy as her film debut, it also turned out to be her cinematic swan song. Fanny Fox (the English equivalent of this eternal rookie's name) discovered that if you begin with an ISHTAR, you'll also end there.