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.