Response to The Cow

While watching the film "The Cow" I was shocked to see how it opened up with a scene of a mentally ill man being, in a sense, tortured. At first, I was not sure why the opening scene of this was as such, but by the end of the film, it was clear that this was a preview of the way the members of Hassan's town respond to the mentally ill. When we first meet Hassan and his cow, it is clear to see that there is a great love between the pair. What it reminded me of was the relationship between that of a man and his beloved dog. Hassan is not the only one who respects his cow however, it is a cherished animal among the whole town. Being that his cow is the only cow in the village, she is a vital part of the village's value. In the article it explains that in short story of "The Cow" that while Hassan is with his cow in the shed feeding it, he is constantly praying that he will be able to care for her. What to us as film viewers appears as a man quietly talking to his cow is truly a depiction of a man praying for the protection of a loved one. The article also points out that the man and his cow are in a sense, one in the same soul; kindred spirits if you will. The cow provides Hassan and the village value, and without the cow, Hassan has lost his own sense of self-value. When the cow dies, the members of the village go out of their way to protect Hassan from the devastation they know will take over him. This leads me to question whether the villagers have already guessed that there was more to Hassan's relationship with his cow than just a love for the animal. When Hassan is made aware of the death of the cow, he steadily falls into a depression that consumes his life. As mentioned in the article, without the cow, Hassan must now assume the soul of his cow. In doing so, Hassan becomes delusional in thinking that he is the cow. Increasingly as his depressions and delusions worsen, his state of mind also deteriorates. Going back to the beginning of the film and seeing the way they treat the mentally ill man, it is no surprise how Hassan is treated. Despite that other members of the village try to get Hassan help in another village, the way they go about it is highly inhumane by today's standards. Tying him up as if he is truly a cow and dragging him through town is not something that will aid the process of his healing. As it would turn out, the trip alone causes far too much strain on Hassan’s mental state, broken down as it is and he dies en route. I think this film does a miraculous job at highlighting the way mental illness was viewed at the time of its production and brings to life the reality of how detrimental depression is to the mind. 

Response to the Cow

            The Cow was an excellent film, I walked away with a lot of different ideas taking from it that I found to be incredibly interesting. To begin an idea i noticed was how by the end of the film Hassan begins to go insane and becomes more cow like, until the point that he is tied up and take out of the city. I found this interesting simply because at the beginning of the film its shows the town ganging up on one poor man, which made me wonder, did the same thing that happened to Hassan happen to him? For example, he lost one of his animals and the pain of loosing it drove him here.

            On top of this when the cow goes missing the ENTIRE village bands together to make up this lie. Now what was odd to me was how easily able these villagers were to rally. This is later shown that their ability to be a community and rally can back fire with them pushing Hassan out. The director is able to show us how united this town is just by the actions they take to take care of Hassan in the beginning then later them getting rid of him.

            Hassan's love for his cow was shown in the beginning of the film great when he is bathing the cow. Even later it is shown when he is sleeping in the cowshed with her and eating wheat with her. You cannot deny that Hassan loves the cow. The thing is people believe that he goes insane after the cow dies, however I feel that he was always insane. Even when the cow was there he was talking to himself and the cow and doing very strange things. Perhaps the cow was anchoring him to be human, but with its death he felt no need to pretend anymore and just became "The Cow".

            All in all this film was very good. It was able to show a man who had everything (Because he had the only cow) to him having nothing. And with this it was able to have us as viewer walk away and interpret many different things behind it.

Jessica Weiss thoughts on "The Cow"

      While watching the film “The Cow” by Mehrjui many thoughts ran through my head. After reading the analysis of film maker Mehrjui and of the writer of the work of fiction the movie was adapted from “The Cow” by Saedi, I had even stranger thoughts. In the beginning I felt sympathetic to the man, the mentally challenged son of Saffar being tortured, until later in the movie I realized he maybe was in on the fun. During the movie, I kept waiting for that to play a role, but the focus was more on Hassan and his odd love for the cow. Because my mind always seems to go to 'dirty' thoughts, I kept wondering why anyone would prefer a cow to the company of their wife. I fully realize that because I was raised on American films where everything, especially children's films (often with animals) is sexualized. So, while Hassan giggling madly while feeding and bathing his cow, getting jealous when others (the village children) try to touch his cow, might seem 'platonic', I just can't help wonder if Hassan's love had an underlying bestiality aspect to it, especially since his love drove him to insanity as he jumped down a cliff.

       Another recurring thought of mine is why would anyone make a film that is sort of about a man's love for his cow, but also about a town who seems to have to think really hard just to come up with a really terrible idea that the beloved cow ran away while pregnant, that winds up not even working? Fortunately, the reading cleared up some of my questions, and I know see the more in-depth and philosophical side of the film and of the literary writer Saedi. Dabashi writes that Saedi was revolutionary in his thinking about anxiety, stress, and psychosis. As a psychiatrist and sociologist, his travels enabled him to scientifically analyze people and then portray it ingeniously. He came up with many fictional pieces of work that were meant to show that man has a reality that is commonly known ie agreeing this book is in fact a book, and then a man simultaneously has his own reality that gives meaning to the book unique to himself, but that he still just calls reality.

       For Hassan it seems the cow was his whole life, some would argue his whole being, as he basically becomes the creature he loved (121). This idea of transmigration is something that has been around for centuries in the Islam religion and present in Persian stories and culture. Realizing the significance of transmigration makes me feel silly for not seeing it in the film, but honestly I couldn't get passed all the strange grunting and heavy petting Hassan displayed on camera, especially as it contrasted all the other rather mild and typical old-school scenes of this black and white film. As a 23 year old movie lover, I have been brain-washed to expect flashiness in my films, and for the film makers to basically slap you in the face with the theme. With that being sad, I much prefer the ambigiousness of “The Cow” and believe that if I were to watch it again, I would have much more to think about in terms of the psychological aspects of the film.

Response to The Cow

What's really intrigued me about The Cow was how it depicted reality in such a fragile manner.
I was surprised at how well the movie got its message across so well while being so slow and simple.  I feel like the movie felt slow because the viewer becomes witness to everything that the village says and does while Hassan is away .  The plot of the movie is very simple and could have gotten the same point across in under 1 hr and 40 minutes, but Mehrjui needs this time to bring the viewer as close as he can to the village.  By end of the film we are so deep into the village that the treatment of Hassan becomes a bit of a shock because the deeper we feel to what is going on,  the more real the shock becomes to the viewer. 

The Dabashi article made me think of the village as a microcosm of society and Hassan's cow as what society values.  You are only as powerful as society values what you have; Hassan lost his sense of reality because he could no longer offer value to his society.  It was as if Hassan's cow was worth more than he was, which is probably why he started acting like the cow once he found out it had died.  The village seemed to have little respect for life in their treatment of the cow, Hassan, and the mentally impaired man that they tied up.  They couldn't offer anything to society so they were tied up just like the cow and treated just like animals.  Although this film is exaggerated, Hassan could represent any unfortunate person in society today.

The Cow

Dariush Mehrjui's The Cow is not just the story of a man who loses his beloved cow, but also is a film that expresses the devastating issues that coincide with mental illness.  The film The Cow is based on the short stories entitled The Mourners of Bayal by Gholam-Hossein Saedi. Saedi's classical training in psychiatry influenced his writing of The Mourners of Bayal, he was able to through his writings, show the psychological issues a small village in Iran may face.  The characters suffer with irrational fears that are devastating.  They try to use ritual and religious elements to control the struggles they face, sadly the villagers do not realize that what they are doing is using a false sense of control to handle their struggles. 

The treatment of the mentally ill within the small village is an even bigger issue than the ignorance of the villagers. The mentally delayed man who was shown throughout the film was treated rather poorly. When asked if he would tell Hassan about the death of his cow, the man obviously did not understand what was going on (based on his contradictory answers).  The villagers decide to tie the man up so he can not "spill the beans" to Hassan.  Such herendous treatment of a mentally ill man is appalling by today's standards. Sadly, this was not too far off from how society treated the mentally ill even up to the 1970's.  Many people suffering with illness were locked away from society.  The villagers use the barbaric method of tying the ill man within a room as a way to combat the ever so obvious situation at hand. The villagers use the tying up and hiding of the ill man as a way to gain control. Such an act is futile because Hassan would never fall for the story the villagers would come to tell him. This is another way the villagers try to control the situation at hand. Their false sense of control may actually be more devastating to Hassan because he will never truly know what happens to his beloved cow. 

When Hassan finds out that his cow has "run away" he begins to distance himself from the villagers.  What the villagers think is a moment of distress is actually the beginnings of a mental breakdown.  When a severe mental breakdown occurs the sufferer can have symptoms that include delusions (strong irrational beliefs), hallucinations (seeing, hearing or feeling something that isn't actually there), depression as well as many other possible symptoms.  Hassan's delusions included that he was becoming a cow.  In society today we would handle this by temporarily institutionalizing him, the use of psychotherapy and the use several types of medications to make the delusions go away (many people who have suffered from psychotically breaks have unregulated levels of hormones/chemicals which can sometimes be causing the issues. Example: schizophrenia has been linked to a unusually high level of dopamine).  The villagers decided that the best way to handle Hassan's mental illness was to tie him up with rope and attempt to take him to a nearby town for assistance. 

The tying of Hassan is previously reflected with the tying of Hassan's dead cow, he is becoming his cow and will soon receive the same fate.  Hassan's descent into madness besides being theatrical also serves another purpose.  His madness lends itself to show the poor treatment of the mentally ill. Rather than being treated like a man like he was in the beginning, by the end he is treated like an animal.  He is treated the same way that many people with mental illness have been treated, as sub-humans as not having worth, as being no better than an animal. The death of Hassan's cow was too much for the villagers to handle, so they tried to take control of the situation the best way they knew how. The same happens when the villagers try to handle the problems brought about by Hassan. Hassan is beaten by the villagers because his mental illness was too much for them to handle. He eventually gets away from them but dies soon after. 

Response to The House is Black

When watching the House is Black I felt as if Farrokhzad was pulling the viewer out of their comfort zone into a place that might be uncharted territory for some.  The movie reveals that if one looks close enough there is beauty in everything, even if it does appear to be ugly on the surface.  Despite the fact that the lepers in the film might be considered aesthetically "ugly" to many, they still worship God and attend school.  They show that the human race is very resilient and can overcome obstacles such as disease and physical deformity.  The film's jerky editing techniques are similar to dream like sequences in other movies where people and things might appear very abruptly, and hazy.  The film Requiem for a Dream directed by Darren Arnofsky came to mind when watching the House is Black.  Requiem for a Dream has similar jerky editing techniques to convey the turbulent lifestyle of the drug addicts in the film.  This makes sense because the House is Black conveys a numbing feeling that is comparable to the numbness of "the real world" that drugs cause. 

Farrokhzad's collection of poetry, Sin, brings about imagery that clarifies many ideas in the movie.  In the closing shot of the House is Black the door to the leper colony is shut, and the camera flies over the gates of the place.  This is symbolic of the viewer steeping into the leper's life and learning something new.  The poem The Wall is similar to the closing scene of the film in that it talks about someone's eyes erecting a wall around Farrokhzad's eyes in the poem.  In life people build walls to protect themselves from things that they do not feel comfortable being around.  In this case the camera flying over the wall of leper colony shows that we were flown over our wall of comfort in order to see the lepers up close.

The House Is Black

Farrokhzad's The House Is Black is (in my opinion, I went back to watch it again) a really fascinating film and in a way is a mesh of both poetry and visual elements. After reading Farrokhzad's writings it becomes very apparent that her narration style within The House is Black as well as the writing style of her poetry is very similar.  The repetition, breaks and calm manner when discussing shocking situations can be found in both her film and her writings. One example of this would be comparing Farrokhzad's poem The Sin with The House is Black. 

In the poem The Sin Farrokhzad discusses having a "sinful" sexual encounter with a man.  Within the poem she is very open about her (and her partner's) lustful nature. Writings at that time, for the location she was from Iran, were still rather radical.  This decision to focus on radical subject matter can also be found in The House is Black. The radical subject being described within the film is the daily activities of those who live within a leper colony. The cuts from scene to scene from lepers missing their fingers, their noses is shocking.  The contents of Farrokhzad's writings and film bring up subjects that our society would rather keep hush-hush. These are situations we know about but refuse to discuss. Farrokhzad is willing to bring such matters to light, she rebelled against the standards of the time, willing to take on the judgments of her society.  While Farrokhzad’s voice was melodic and soothing, it was able to bring to the masses knowledge of untouchable information.  

Farrokhzad users her writings as a way to shock and inform others. The use of shocking content is very useful to open the eyes and the mind of the viewer. Many people are unaware of the plight of others simply due to ignorance, others refuse to see what is truly going on. For those who are willing to watch the shocking visuals or read the shocking text, it brings about new knowledge. Farrokhzad's writings were revolutionary for the time due to the restrictive nature found in the area of the world she was from, and the film she made makes people face things they wish not to. Lepers are kept away from the rest of society, one reason being to contain the diseased, but also to remove what society doesn't wish to see. Similarities can be found in the societies of the United States, every time we look away from a homeless person's suffering, we refuse to see the shocking truths that Farrokhzad charged towards. 

Dariush Mehrjui's The Cow

Many apologies to everyone that I didn't condense The Cow in a more conducive fashion! I just now rewatched the ending, and in fact three villagers (the chief included) take Hassan, leading him by rope, to the mountain. There, the chief begins to whip Hassan. Another man stops him from whipping him, and at this moment, Hassan breaks free, bellows, and runs until he hurls himself down the slope. His body is then shown face down in a stream at the bottom of the mountain. There is a dissolve and the next scene shows the three villagers on the horizon--their placement on the horizon mimics the three silhouettes of the thieves at the beginning of the film (when Hassan is washing the cow). Here is a full summary of the film for your benefit:

http://forgottenclassicsofyesteryear.blogspot.com/2010/04/cow.html

Questions: What about Dariush Mehrjui The Cow intrigues or disturbs you? What is memorable to you about the formal construction of the film? And lastly, does Hamid Dabashi's psychological contextualization of the film and Sa'edi's (Gohar Morad's) screenplay resonate with your 'reading' of The Cow?

Disillusioned: The House is Black

Both the film and the poems present the struggle of disillusionment to the audience. In the film, the lepers are seen often in prayer but there is a consistent overtone that no deity is watching from on high. The audience is then actually made gods because they see everything that these people do throughout the day. And since they now know these people so intimately  it becomes their duty to care for them. This alters the audience's perception of themselves and their responsibility .In one of her poems she stares into a mirror, unable to discern who it is who stares back. Like the lepers, like the audience- she does not know.

Summary of Responses to Farrokhzad

CONTENT

Trapped & Numb

Loni writes that the film is filled with sadness, trauma, and searching. Kelsey also felt the film conveyed a trapped feeling and depicted persons who were “waiting for the end.” Gabby found a common theme in both The House is Black and Sin: “that of desperation and a feeling of being stuck. The voiceover in the film gives off a sense of despair that the people feel and that they are constantly waiting for a ‘redemption’ that will never come.” She furthers: “Her poems explain that even though she feels alive with her lover, she remains feeling like a ‘bird stuck in its cage…’ The author speaks of loneliness, ‘an empty house, a house of darkness,’ similar to the loneliness that the lepers feel from being ostracized and isolated from the rest of their society. It seems that the biggest commonality between the lepers and Farrokhzad is that both feel that they are trapped in this repetitive cycle of despair and waiting for it to end.”Conor intriguingly and provocatively compared The House Is Numb to pornography. “In my opinion,” he writes, “the use of disturbing images leaves the mind nothing to work with but what appears on the screen. It’s a bit like a pornography in that sense because after seeing something like that one might feel a bit over stimulated. Burnt out even. This feeling of numbness stems from those ideals. Interestingly enough the disease itself that was examined in horrifying detail effects the nerve cells rendering the victim numb.” Jessica also found numbness in the poem “Wind-up Doll,” which, she writes, “describes a similar kind of numbness as was shown with The House is Black, especially because the faces all seemed mostly lifeless, dull, unblinking. In the following stanza, Farrakhzad depicts exactly the kind of acceptance of a dark, unforgiving life many lepers appear to feel:

       Like a wind-up doll one can look out

      at the world through glass eyes

      spend years inside a felt box

      body stuffed with straw

      wrapped in layers of dainty lace. (27)”

She finally explains that although “some are trapped by their ailing bodies, Farrokhzad seemed to be trapped by the desire to love…” Anthony found the film dark and foreboding, and uncomfortable to watch. “I am very squeamish,” he writes, “so seeing all of those people so marred by leprosy was difficult to stomach. In my opinion, this may have been by design. I believe the Farrokhzad may have wanted to expose the audience to a level of discomfort that we are not used to.” He then read some of Farrokhzad’s poems, hoping that the poems might offer him more hope: “I saw the title The Ring. I thought that might be promising; not so much. It had me believe that there was an engagement, which would normally be a happy occasion. However the last verse says otherwise, ‘Distraught, she sighed: Vaye! Vaye! This band---, so lustrous and aglow---, is the clamp of bondage, of slavery.’” Nicole too, found she was “reading a lot of sad and depressing words” that echoed her experience of the film. Lastly, Heather compared a scene in The House Is Black to the poem ‘Lost’: “When reading the poetry of Farrokhzad, many images or faces of the film came into mind. One poem in particular is ‘Lost.’ The second stanza starts off with ‘I keep asking the wretched mirror: Tell me, who am I in your eyes?’ It goes on to say that she is not the same woman as she once was. This poem made me think back to film where one woman was looking at herself in the mirror, possibly thinking about how her reflection is not the same as it once was. The woman is no longer who she used to be.”

           

Hope

Others of you interpreted the film The House Is Black as conveying a hopeful message. Maggie found joyous poems while reading Sin. “She has a poem titled ‘I Will Greet the Sun Again,’” Maggie writes, “where she shows an emotion of hope. The people in the film display actions of hope and joy while praising and worshiping their God.” Allyson H. basically thought Farrokhzad embraces the darkness, but tells the viewer not to give up. Keleigh found that “Farrokhzad continues to speak about darkness in Sin, namely in the poem entitled ‘Gift.’ In the poem, she ‘speaks out of darkness’ just like the lepers in the colony were trying to speak out. Darkness can represent a feeling of depression and hopelessness. Through her movie, Farrokhzad was trying to tell the stories of the lepers to people around the world. In this sense, she was speaking out of the darkness on their behalf so that she could give the gift of their faith and bravery to the rest of the world. In the next verse of the poem, she asks someone who visits her to ‘bring a lamp and a window [so she] can look through at the crowd in the happy alley.’ I think this verse could be used to symbolize the lack of freedom those in the leper colony had because they could never leave. The lamp (light) parallels the movie because the lepers want to be able to see joy and happiness but it is tough on them when their outlook on life is so bleak and they are surrounded in blackness. Only when they see the light will they be able to take joy in seeing people being happy. This coincides with the idea that the lepers are waiting for the end; they want to see light at the end of the tunnel because then they will not be suffering from leprosy anymore and they would be able to look down on the happy people in the alley.” Ally Headings writes that she “felt a sense of hope for the lepers when the male voiceover was stating facts about leprosy, because he said, ‘Leprosy is not incurable. Taking care of lepers stops the disease from spreading. Wherever the lepers have been adequately cared for, the disease has vanished.’” She adds: “And inside the colony is where the lepers are receiving the treatment that they need, so it doesn’t seem so farfetched that one day they’ll all be able to leave that place. Towards the end of the movie Farrokhzad says, ‘The harvest season passed, the summer season came to an end, and we did not find deliverance […] We wait for light and darkness reigns.’ And so a message that I got out of this movie was that no matter what awful conditions that may enter your life, keeping a positive attitude and seeing the beautiful things in life can go farther than we sometimes may think. Things will not resolve themselves overnight.” Ally also found that the poem “Captive” reminded her “of the leper colony in The House is Black. Even though she is not physically imprisoned and the lepers in a sense are imprisoned, I think it relates well to how the lepers feel. She mentions that she daydreams about her escape. I don’t doubt that some of the people suffering from leprosy have thought about the day when they’re able to leave that place.” The daydream, then, is the hope within this poem. Jamie thought that there was a “confusion of hopefulness and misery” in Farrokhzad’s literature and film. “Taking a closer look at the individuals, even their facial expressions followed this pattern,” Jamie writes. “As the woman had blocks placed on her hands, she felt nothing; her face was solemn and emotionless. Close-ups of distorted faces appeared as if they were mug shots, portraying the colony as ‘outsiders’ or people who don’t belong with the rest of society. On the other hand, Farrokhzad shows a little [girl] combing [another] girl’s hair as they both smile to the melody of a happy man.

“When looking at her poetry,” Jamie adds, “this contradicting style continues throughout her collection Sin. A poem that stuck out to me was ‘On Loving.’ In this poem she wrote:

                I’m so filled with you

                I want to run through meadows,

                Bash my head against mountain rocks,

                Give myself to ocean waves.

The comparison of running through a meadow and bashing her head against mountain rocks does not line up – one is clearly relating to happiness while the other relates to a suicidal state…Juggling between whether life is worth holding onto or letting go is a key message in both her poetry and film productions. The idea that when times are rough and you are dealt a unfair hand, you have two contradicting choices: be thankful for what you do have or do not accept reality and look for a new way of life.”

Wholeness

Katherine constructed a three-tiered, lovely critique and found Farrokhzad’s creative work to be fundamentally “whole.” “It is clear from [Farrokhzad’s] poetry,” Katherine writes, “that she finds a lot of importance in a few areas: the body; nature; spirit. Almost every moment of the film touched on at least one of these areas. For the easiest example, the film showed the effects of leprosy on the bodies of these Iranian individuals living together in a colony. Her quick cuts of treatments for the disease featured fingers pressed flat with heavy weights, feet spinning pedals similar to those on bicycles, and a pair of special scissors cutting away “imperfections” from the back of a hand. Throughout her poetry, Farrokhzad mentions the body often, even by personifying inanimate objects such as the waves. The next area that I found emphasized in both film and poetry was nature. The film showed quick cuts of the outdoors: leaves floating on water, trees, birds, etc. Her poetry mentions the sun, flowers, sky, dewy grass, springs and fields, just to name a few. Finally, the author/filmmaker believes in the importance of spirit; from her own spirit about which she writes beautifully, delicately, and abruptly simultaneously, to the spirits of others. The film showcases the spirits of the lepers through their dancing, their faith, and their playfulness.

            “I believe these three distinct areas (body, nature, and spirit) enhance the poetic message that is embedded within The House is Black. That message, to me at least, seems to be one of wholeness, and acknowledgement of such. By ‘wholeness’ I mean the acceptance of people and life, and all aspects of them… mind, body, soul, nature, nurture, etc.”

Humanizing Disease

Melissa, Hina, and Jessica concentrated their critiques on how Farrokhzad manages to humanize disease. Melissa writes: “The film has potential to affect a large audience of many backgrounds and cultures. She has accomplished this by portraying the lepers in the colony as ordinarily as possible. They are filmed playing games, singing, eating, resting, spending time in groups as well as alone. The only difference is their physical appearance. Normally, a person may be aghast when seeing a person plagued with leprosy for the first time. However, I believe the film acts a sort of shield to open the doors to the leper colony without as direct of an impact. Because of this, a viewer will be more comfortable, and therefore more receptive to the intended message. It’s like Farrokhzad is trying to ease us into it so we are sure to accept the fact that these are people too, and that there no longer needs to be a stigma against them.”

            She continues: “Her poetry is a type of shield as well, using description, metaphors and a roundabout way of discussing a subject that may otherwise not be as, say, beautiful as the prose on the page. In The Gift, she says: “O kind friend, if you visit my house,/bring me a lamp, cut me a window,/so I can gaze at the swarming alley of the fortunate.” And inMates: “slipping from the tap/then, two cigarettes/two spots of glowing red/the tick tick of a clock/and two hearts/steeped in loneliness…” These two poems have a beautiful flow throughout their entirety, yet, are discussing very sad things. I think her message through both forms of art is that you can find beauty within the dreadful.” Hina finds that Farrokhzad is able to convey this humanizing message through the way she shows beauty and normalcy of persons suffering from leprosy: “The House is Black is a short film full of both moral and poetic messages. It defines what beauty and normalcy are in regards to the lepers. The film shows that just because all of the people presented have deformities that doesn’t mean they’re any different from other people. They still live as normal lives as possible. The children still play, the adults pray daily, and the women still get married and have children. Women even wear makeup and still dress up despite they’re different appearance. Beauty and normalcy are things that all people experience regardless of their situations.… It presented that leprosy may be a disease, but those who are still affected by it are still people and they should not be treated like animals. By being sent to colonies, the world was basically saying that they were no different than diseased livestock, they just couldn’t kill them…Most of her poems, though on topics that differ from leprosy, revert back to the same topic: beauty. She finds beauty in everything from the waves of the ocean to the eyes of her lovers. They all demonstrate a sort of appreciation for the simpler things in life, which can relate back to the film. Everyday tasks in the colony present the people as regular and not out casted to a colony. Just by revealing what their everyday lives consist of, the film provides a better understanding of the colony and its people. It shows that the people of the colony actually were human and should have been treated as such.”

Ultimately, Jessica finds that Farrokhzad portrays persons with leprosy with dignity: “Watching the House is Black made me feel compassionate towards the lepers because of their disfigurements, and their sadness at being forced away from society. There are many times throughout history where people are removed from society when they're deemed unfit. Your race, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, mental health, physical abilities or disabilities can make others fear your differences, so through the influence of commanding authority figures, these different people are ostracized. For whatever reason, we seem to forget that all people are people. Farrohkzad brought back the humanity to the lepers, forcing the viewer to feel both shocked and empathetic through the jump cuts of leprosy faces, amputations, deteriorating noses of the young and the old, men, women and children.”

Pro-Colony Argument

Heather, however, argued that while watching The House Is Black, she was convinced that the colony offered a kind of safety to those suffering from leprosy: “In The House is Black, Farrokhzad creates beauty through something that can easily be seen as ugly or even scary. We see quick shots of people who have been affected by leprosy and the harm it does to their bodies. Through some repetition we learn that leprosy can be curable, but the affects cannot be reversed. One can try to straighten out their fingers, but limbs cannot grow back. Even though the people with leprosy have some deformities or disabilities, we still see smiles or happiness in many of them, especially the children. I see this colony as their safe haven. They can learn, they can heal, they can get treatment, and they can play. To me, this is beauty. Outside the colony, they would be judged, they would not have much help, and maybe not enough money for treatment…”

Wake-up Call

Billy felt that the film was a wake-up call. “I think she is clearly disgusted with how we as humans can take diseased people and exile them to a place where they can only interact with other diseased people,” he writes.
“These lepers are being treated as filthy animals that we would just throw outside and forget about…. The first thing that really popped out to me, was the fact that the lepers were still praising God and thanking God for everything. They had every right to be depressed and have no joy at all, but they still danced and laughed and played as if they completely forgot about their disease. I think of the people in today’s society who think their nails need to be done every other week, their hair needs to be perfect every day, they have to have the most expensive clothing and jewelry on, and if they don’t have those things then their life is terrible. We need to start looking at the big picture and realize that our happiness cannot come through materialistic things. We are dooming ourselves as a culture if we continue in this manner. This film really opened my eyes to this.”

FORM

Quick Cuts, Timed Sounds

Ally Headings found a remarkable moment in Sin and compares it to The House Is Black: “[Farrokhzad] writes, ‘drip drop drip drop drip drop of water’ and lays it on the page as if the words were actually drops of water. It’s interesting. And she separates words like ‘eyes’ and ‘hands’ by entire lines which reminds me of the quick cuts of faces and feet and hands in The House is Black. There is also a part in the movie where she makes quick cuts to the beat of a wheel on a wheelbarrow. It’s like the entire movie has a certain rhythm to it, much like her many poems.” Bridget “read” the film’s sound track like a beating heart or ticking clock: “The most prevalent idea I came across in this film was this feeling of waiting. Through quick frames and clips, mixed with well-timed sounds (a man tapping on a wall, men playing a type of board game), I felt like the movie was almost counting down to something. The way the movie was filmed reminded me of a ‘tick, tock’ kind of feeling, almost as if a clock was ticking away as the seconds passed by…”

Repetition

Allyson H. found that repetition played a hugel role in Farrokhzad’s work: “Just as Farrokhzad repeats shots quickly in the film to make sure we haven’t forgotten them, she repeats certain stanzas in many of her poems in Sin to make sure we haven’t forgotten them, either.” Conor, too, focused on what he found to be boring effects of repetition in Farrokhzad’s poetry: “On another note, when reading some of the poetry in Sin I found her works to be somewhat underwhelming, especially after watching a film that was so moving and at sometimes unwatchable. To be completely honest only a few poems really stuck out at me and I found her use of sensory imaging to be a bit forced.  One line I did enjoy, ‘I delivered myself from myself’ I found to be slightly existential. Perhaps a quandary of when soul meets body or vice versa. I think the biggest thing that bothered me was that she used a lot of the same imagery over and over again blue veins, acacia scent and breasts seemed to pop up more often than not.”

Gendered Voices: Opposing Views

Chris describes how gendered voices gave The House Is Black, in effect, two different viewpoints: “The man’s voice versus the woman’s voice show two different things. The man…is very factual and almost matter of fact with his voice, while the woman speaks in a very light voice that almost calms you, and is much more hopeful then the man’s. The man states how leprosy is incurable, while the woman…[speaks] of enjoying life and the different good things in it. These two voices together [show] two different ways of looking at this leper colony.”

The House is Black

The House is Black is one of the more depressing movies I've seen, but let me explain.  While this movie discusses a very sad, almost forgotten group of people, I found the themes of this movie much more depressing than the disease of leprosy itself. The most prevalent idea I came across in this film was this feeling of waiting. Through quick frames and clips, mixed with well-timed sounds (a man tapping on a wall, men playing a type of board game), I felt like the movie was almost counting down to something. The way the movie was filmed reminded me of a "tick, tock" kind of feeling, almost as if a clock was ticking away as the seconds passed by. I find this a commonality between many horror films as well. This style of filming was one of the contributing factors to my feelings towards this movie.

After reading the poems of the film's director, Forough Farrokhzad, I confirmed this theme of waiting. In my opinion, many of her poems were conveying pride in herself and in ways of living, but they also conveyed this idea of wondering when people would accept her for who she is and understand her way of life. According to the biography in the beginning of her collection of poems, she in a sense was waiting also. She was constantly waiting for her ways of life to be accepted and for her work in poetry to gain the respect it deserved.

I think that this idea was most upsetting because it made me wonder what the people in the leper colony were waiting for. Their condition to improve? For the outside world to accept them? Their was so much hope in the eyes of the children of the colony, but when you looked at their parents their was no hope...just, waiting.

The House is Black- a shield meant to open our eyes

The House is Black was a film unlike any I have ever experienced before. While watching it, I felt a range of emotions and feelings such as pity, thankfulness, surprise, and numbness.  Leprosy is something that the average American college student does not think about or come into contact with on a daily basis. However, I do not believe that Farrokhzad made this film with solely the American college student in mind. This work functions on a global scale because it really is a study of human lives that are so far removed from normalcy. The film has potential to affect a large audience of many backgrounds and cultures. She has accomplished this by portraying the lepers in the colony as ordinarily as possible. They are filmed playing games, singing, eating, resting, spending time in groups as well as alone. The only difference is their physical appearance. Normally, a person may be aghast when seeing a person plagued with leprosy for the first time. However, I believe the film acts a sort of shield to open the doors to the leper colony without as direct of an impact. Because of this, a viewer will be more comfortable, and therefore more receptive to the intended message. It’s like Farrokhzad is trying to ease us into it so we are sure to accept the fact that these are people too, and that there no longer needs to be a stigma against them. Even though the film was repetitive and possesses a slight sense of horror, it is beautiful in it’s realness.

Her poetry is a type of shield as well, using description, metaphors and a roundabout way of discussing a subject that may otherwise not be as, say, beautiful as the prose on the page. In The Gift, she says: “O kind friend, if you visit my house,/bring me a lamp, cut me a window,/so I can gaze at the swarming alley of the fortunate.” And in Mates: “slipping from the tap/then, two cigarettes/two spots of glowing red/the tick tick of a clock/and two hearts/steeped in loneliness…” These two poems have a beautiful flow throughout their entirety, yet, are discussing very sad things. I think her message through both forms of art is that you can find beauty within the dreadful. Lepers may not be what is considered attractive on the outside, but they have beautiful souls. And writing about loneliness and desperation can be flowery and poetic as well. 

To struggle, is to be human

Throughout Forugh Faurrokhzad's film The House is Black and the poems in Sin I felt a sense of varying extreme and passionate emotions that are only connected only by the fact we are humans who struggle daily, unfairly, and yet find a way to hope, love, endurance.

Watching the House is Black made me feel compassionate towards the lepers because of their disfigurements, and their sadness at being forced away from society. There are many times throughout history where people are removed from society when they're deemed unfit. Your race, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, mental health, physical abilities or disabilities can make others fear your differences, so through the influence of commanding authority figures, these different people are ostracized. For whatever reason, we seem to forget that all people are people. Faurrohkzad brought back the humanity to the lepers, forcing the viewer to feel both shocked and empathetic through the jump cuts of leprosy faces, amputations, deteriorating noses of the young and the old, men, women and children. Calm high angled shot of a single maple leaf floating in a pond relays the message that there is at least minimal, simplistic life, if not maybe something better and brighter. Images of the more able bodied with severely disfigured lepers worshiping show they believe in a higher power and appreciate the life they have, even as it is a separate life from the society they once knew, who no longer wants them. She succeeds in invoking the viewer to relate to the leper, to feel sorry for him, but also to understand that all humans alike suffer in one way or another, and all we can do to accept our fate is to try to keep living.

All humans struggle, and as Sin seemed to depict a more personal view of Farrokhzad's love life, that struggle is an essential theme in all of Farrokhzad's works. One poem “Wind-up Doll” describes a similar kind of numbness as was shown with The House is Black especially because the faces all seemed mostly lifeless, dull, unblinking. In the following stanza, Farrakhzad depicts exactly the kind of acceptance of a dark, unforgiving life many lepers appear to feel (27):

       Like a wind-up doll one can look out

      at the world through glass eyes

      spend years inside a felt box

      body stuffed with straw

      wrapped in layers of dainty lace.

Even though this poem talks about the entrappement of the body, many of her other poems are about love and lust and the wonders of one on one human interaction. Although some are entrapped by their ailing bodies, Farrokhzad seemed to be trapped by the desire to love, and to lose love deeply. In another exerpt of her poem “Summer's Green Waters” she talks about how even despite the pain and the hardships, it is worth the moments we can thrive in love (38).

      Alas, we are happy and serene.

      Alas, we are heartisck and silent

      Happy, because we love.

      Heartsick, because love is a curse.

The House is Black

While watching The House is Black one might feel the need to jerk away from the disturbing amount of grotesque image.  However, one may be doing themselves a disservice.  In this film a leper colony is observed under the direction of Forough Farrokhzad.  She makes use of some dodgy, horror movie like film cuts.  Not to mention the juxtaposition of some pretty nasty images with what would be a normal day scenario for any other person.

Furthermore, an undertone of numbness can be felt... no pun intended, throughout the film as well as in its digestion.  In my opinion the use of disturbing images leaves the mind nothing to work with but what appears on the screen.  It's a bit like a pornography in that sense because after seeing something like that one might feel a bit over stimulated.  Burnt out even.  This feeling of numbness stems from those ideals.  Interestingly enough the disease itself that was examined in horrifying detail effects the nerve cells rendering the victim numb.

On another note, when reading some of the poetry in Sin I found her works to be somewhat underwhelming.  Especially after watching a film that was so moving and at sometimes unwatchable.  to be completely honest only a few poems really stuck out at me and I found her use of sensory imaging to be a bit forced.  One line I did enjoy, "I delivered myself from myself" I found to be slightly existential.  Perhaps a quandary of when soul meets body or vice versa.  I think the biggest thing that bothered me was that she used a lot of the same imagery over and over again blue veins, acacia scent and breasts seemed to pop up more often than not.

Reading the poetry in her voice as suggested was very helpful in understanding the rhythm and flow of the poems though.   

The House is Black & Sin

           In The House is Black, Farrokhzad creates beauty through something that can easily be seen as ugly or even scary. We see quick shots of people who have been affected by leprosy and the harm it does to their bodies. Through some repetition we learn that leprosy can be curable, but the affects cannot be reversed. One can try to straighten out their fingers, but limbs cannot grow back. Even though the people with leprosy have some deformities or disabilities, we still see smiles or happiness in many of them, especially the children. I see this colony as their safe haven. They can learn, they can heal, they can get treatment, and they can play. To me, this is beauty. Outside the colony, they would be judged, they would not have much help, and maybe not enough money for treatment.

When reading the poetry of Farrokhzad, many images or faces of the film came into mind. One poem in particular is Lost. The second stanza starts off with “I keep asking the wretched mirror: Tell me, who am I in your eyes?” It goes on to say that she is not the same woman as she once was. This poem made me think back to film where one woman was looking at herself in the mirror, possibly thinking about how her reflection is not the same as it once was. The woman is no longer who she used to be. Many of her poems are similar to her film. For example, she may be talking about something sad but surrounds it with beauty, just like in the film. In the poem Captive, the poetic voice longs to break free from something, maybe its lifestyle, but compares it to a bird in a cage and a child smiling. Like I said earlier, the lepers have a troubled life, but it is surrounded with a type of beauty.

The House is Black

The House is Black/ Sin

            First, I would like to say that The House is Black was really uncomfortable to watch for me. I am very squeamish, so seeing all of those people so marred by leprosy was difficult to stomach. In my opinion, this may have been by design. I believe the Farrokhzad may have wanted to expose the audience to a level of discomfort that we are not used to. Now, I have no prior knowledge of the work of Farrokhzad, so I can not be sure, maybe you would be able to enlighten me on that. It just seems like she has somewhat of a dark side to her. I say this also because a lot of her poems seems to be dark or negative more than they are positive. Specifically, some of the titles speak to my point: Sin, Grief, Captive, and I Pity the Garden just to name a few. I saw the title The Ring, I thought that might be promising; not so much. It had me believe that there was an engagement, which would normally be a happy occasion. However the last verse says otherwise, “Distraught, she sighed: Vaye! Vaye! This band---, so lustrous and aglow---, is the clamp of bondage, of slavery.”

            In reference to The House is Black, maybe Farrokhzad just wants us to appreciate the things we have before we complain about the little things in life. I say that because, at least after my initial feelings of discomfort, that that should be a current lesson for the new viewers. The House is Black really made me thankful that I lead a healthy life and have a good family, because in the end, that is what matters the most.

Anthony Mahalis

The House is Black

The House is Black is a short film full of both moral and poetic messages. It defines what beauty and normalcy are in regards to the lepers. The film shows that just because all of the people presented have deformities that doesn't mean they're any different from other people. They still live as normal lives as possible. The children still play, the adults pray daily, and the women still get married and have children. Women even wear makeup and still dress up despite they're different appearance. Beauty and normalcy are things that all people experience regardless of their situations.

The moral aspects of the film were shown through the shifts in the narrator, where a man would be describing leprosy. It presented that leprosy may be a disease, but those who are still effected by it are still people and they should not be treated like animals. By being sent to colonies, the world was basically saying that they were no different than diseased livestock, they just couldn’t kill them. Farrokhzad's way of filming this showed the cruel aspect of the leper colony lifestyle, as opposed to the carefree one shown previously. The sporadic shifts between scenes gave the film a horror-like appearance. Bringing attention back to the serious nature of leprosy and that people should be aware that it is a disease that exists. By creating specific colonies for leprosy alone, it was like saying that it was a problem the world could just turn a blind eye to.

By looking at Farrokhzad's poems a viewer, can find the greater depth in her movie. Most of her poems, though on topics that differ from leprosy, revert back to the same topic: beauty. She finds beauty in everything from the waves of the ocean to the eyes of her lovers. They all demonstrate a sort of appreciation for the simpler things in life, which can relate back to the film. Everyday tasks in the colony present the people as regular and not out casted to a colony. Just by revealing what their everyday lives consist of, the film provides a better understanding of the colony and its people. It shows that the people of the colony actually were human and should have been treated as such.  

Beauty takes on many different definitions, but can be found everywhere. The House is Black as well as the book Sin by Forugh Farrokhzad  both express the beauty in the most unexpected places as well as the horrors. The film shows the normalcy that a colony of lepers is capable of despite their diseases. It also showed the problems with how they were being treated, almost like a herd of cattle. Farrokhzad also explained in her poems the beauty in nature and humans. The horrors that she presented were also of simpler things such as a wedding band or the death of nature. All of Farrokhzad's works can be viewed with a sort of interconnectedness. 

The House is Black and Sin

In the House is Black film, the writer shows a lot of emotions and the humanity of the people who have been colonized away from society. It also talks a lot about bad emotions just like the book Sin. I feel like i was reading a lot of sad and depressioning words just like i did when i was watching the movie, The House is Black. Both seemed to enforce the depressing side of the situation and of life. If gave me another out look to things because i am used to always reading books on the happier things of life and books alway with a happy ending. The book and film where completely diffrent aspects then what i am used to an i really liked seeing someone elses perspective.

The House is Black

When watching The House is Black for the first time, one of the biggest messages that Forough Farrokhzad portrayed was one of faith. Even though the lepers were forced away from their families and homes and were instead isolated within the confines of the leper colony in Iran, they were able to hold onto their faith. They thanked God for what they did have and still acknowledged that life went on. However, there also seemed to be a sense of despair. Although the lepers maintained their faith, they were under no illusions that life would get any better for them. Many of them seemed to be waiting for the end, because at least then they would not be suffering. In this lies a sense of depression and a feeling of darkness within the heart.

Farrokhzad continues to speak about darkness in Sin, namely in the poem entitled “Gift.” In the poem, she “speaks out of darkness” just like the lepers in the colony were trying to speak out. Darkness can represent a feeling of depression and hopelessness. Through her movie, Farrokhzad was trying to tell the stories of the lepers to people around the world. In this sense, she was speaking out of the darkness on their behalf so that she could give the gift of their faith and bravery to the rest of the world. In the next verse of the poem, she asks someone who visits her to “bring a lamp and a window [so she] can look through at the crowd in the happy alley.” I think this verse could be used to symbolize the lack of freedom those in the leper colony had because they could never leave. The lamp (light) parallels the movie because the lepers want to be able to see joy and happiness but it is tough on them when their outlook on life is so bleak and they are surrounded in blackness. Only when they see the light will they be able to take joy in seeing people being happy. This coincides with the idea that the lepers are waiting for the end; they want to see light at the end of the tunnel because then they will not be suffering from leprosy anymore and they would be able to look down on the happy people in the alley.

The House is Black vs Sin

It's difficult to put into words the emotion and heartache one feels while watching The House is Black or reading some poems from Sin. It seems as if Forugh Farrokhzad is trying to show both sides of each story. She captivates her audience and forces them to feel the emotions she is feeling.

On one hand in The House is Black, Farrokhzad displays the trials and struggles of everyday life in a leper colony. The people in this society are ostracized from the rest of the world. The disease has crippled them and some cannot perform everyday activities. The way she portrays them, with quick frames and repetitions, is almost as if the film is a poem in itself. She narrated it as if she was reciting poetry and used her voice to emphasize emotion. Some frames were more emphasized than others, causing one to focus on that frame and feel exactly what that person is feeling. One particular scene, a man is pacing back and forth along a wall, grazing and tapping the wall with his hand. It shows the man is trapped by the disease, and has no path to follow. There is no where else for him to go.

On the other hand, Farrokhzad emphasizes the faith and spirit these people have. There are many scenes of people praising God and thanking Him for what they have. Whether they worship together or praise alone, they have faith and spirit to hold on to, even if their situation is not a pleasant one. The people, children especially, all come together as a community as well. They play together, dance together, and just spend time with each other in general. While being so secluded from the world in this type of community, I suppose the only thing to hold on to is each other.

The way she portrays this film is similar to many poems in Sin. Some poems are filled with sorrow, with her losing her son she felt empty. Her divorce also filled her with loneliness and grief. These emotions can be seen in the people of the leper colony as well. She can empathize with their emotions. Farrokhzad also has poems of joy. She has a poem titled "I Will Greet the Sun Again" where she shows an emotion of hope. The people in the film display actions of hope and joy while praising and worshiping their God. She connects her poems very well with her film.

Simply Contradicting

Contradicting is the word that comes to mind when I think of Forugh Farrokhzad. Both in her literature and film, there was a sense of confusion between hopefulness and misery.

The House of Black depicted a colony of people with Leprosy, but in various lights. Many adults were alone and slowly lurking the faded colony, while others were speaking of praise and thankfulness. As one man with a crutch slowly walks into the darkness – another man sings songs of worship. There were children playing games and carrying on with laughter, while others were counting down the days to their death. Intertwined with the maze of emotions were shots of still water, lifeless and deserted and then a few seconds later a swarm of birds soar through the sky. Taking a closer look at the individuals, even their facial expressions followed this pattern. As the woman had blocks placed on her hands, she felt nothing; her face was solemn and emotionless. Close-ups of distorted faces appeared as if they were mug shots, portraying the colony as “outsiders” or people who don’t belong with the rest of society. On the other hand, Farrokhzad shows a little boy combing a girls hair as they both smile to the melody of a happy man.

When looking at her poetry, this contradicting style continues throughout her collection Sin. A poem that stuck out to me was On Loving. In this poem she wrote:

                “I’m so filled with you

                I want to run through meadows,

                Bash my head against mountain rocks,

                Give myself to ocean waves.”

The comparison of running through a meadow and bashing her head against mountain rocks does not line up – one is clearly relating to happiness while the other relates to a suicidal state. In reading her biography, Farrokhzad points out that there are two distinct parts of her when she said, “…the desperate struggle between two stages of my life, the last gasps and my future.” Juggling between whether life is worth holding onto or letting go is a key message in both her poetry and film productions. The idea that when times are rough and you are dealt a unfair hand, you have two contradicting choices: be thankful for what you do have or do not accept reality and look for a new way of life. 

Comparing The House is Black and Sin

Upon reading Sin and watching The House is Black, I’m not entirely convinced that Farrokhzad completely believed that the lepers would ever be healed of escape the colony. She shows us a lot of clips of the lepers in the middle of prayers and praise to God, and her voiceover at one point says, “Who is this in hell praising you, O Lord?” It makes me wonder if she is referring to the colony as hell. I also felt a sense of hope for the lepers when the male voiceover was stating facts about leprosy, because he said, “Leprosy is not incurable. Taking care of lepers stops the disease from spreading. Wherever the lepers have been adequately cared for, the disease has vanished.” And inside the colony is where the lepers are receiving the treatment that they need, so it doesn’t seem so farfetched that one day they’ll all be able to leave that place. Towards the end of the movie Farrokhzad says, “The harvest season passed, the summer season came to an end, and we did not find deliverance […] We wait for light and darkness reigns.” And so a message that I got out of this movie was that no matter what awful conditions that may enter your life, keeping a positive attitude and seeing the beautiful things in life can go farther than we sometimes may think. Things will not resolve themselves overnight.

I think Farrokhzad’s poems help us to better understand the feelings of those suffering from leprosy in the movie by writing about loneliness and hurt in terms of lost lovers or things like that, because more often than not we’re more capable of relating to love than to having leprosy. In Sin, the poem “Captive” reminded me a lot of the leper colony in The House is Black. Even though she is not physically imprisoned and the lepers in a sense are imprisoned, I think it relates well to how the lepers feel. She mentions that she daydreams about her escape. I don’t doubt that some of the people suffering from leprosy have thought about the day when they’re able to leave that place. I myself can relate to that feeling. Then in her poem “Mates,” the way she indents lines and separates words is almost literal to the meaning of the words on the page. She writes, “drip drop drip drop drip drop of water” and lays it on the page as if the words were actually drops of water. It’s interesting. And she separates words like “eyes” and “hands” by entire lines which reminds me of the quick cuts of faces and feet and hands in The House is Black. There is also a part in the movie where she makes quick cuts to the beat of a wheel on a wheelbarrow. It’s like the entire movie has a certain rhythm to it, much like her many poems. Reading those poems has helped me understand why she cut the movie the way she did.