The House is Black

In the film I noticed a relationship between the mind and the body of the lepers. They had chosen to live in their minds, to escape the grim fact their body was diseased, deteriorating, and dying. Often we would see them staring into space, presumably just thinking. There was also a fair amount of attention to religion. Presumably religion helps them to strengthen their acceptance of their position and give comfort. The minds of the lepers were also occupied by games, which must have also given relief to boredom. 

The way The House is Black was filmed, the atmosphere is calming, especially with Farrokhzads' lilting narration. Her poetry on the whole has the same kind of lilt, with moments of a lot of repetition: red rose red rose, no one no one, the bird the bird. The film showed repetition in the shots taken, like the man running the stick on the wall, and also repetition of sets shocking images in quick succession. The lepers were trapped into leaving repetitive lives. When reading Farrokhzad's poetry, I don't get this shock factor, but this may be because some images speak louder than words. This shock juxtaposed with the overall calmness of the film may also cause the images to speak louder. Or it may be because she didn't write anything shocking at all. The calmness of the film comes from the fact that it is mainly, if not entirely, filmed in stills. It feels like a calmness of acceptance, of waiting, and of thought.

- steffie mongar