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.