Khake Sar Beh Mohr

EN

“But before man accepts the sacred world and in order that he should be able to accept it – or before he escapes from it and in order that he should be able to escape from it – there is always a period of soul-searching and rebellion.”

Opening card of the film, quoting Albert Camus’ The Rebel (1951)

“Nabili conceived Khak-e Sar bé Mohr as her graduation film when studying in New York. With the help of Iranian producer and cinematographer Barbod Taheri, she returned to Iran and got a deal to direct part of the Ancient Persian Fables series for Iranian public television in exchange for raw 16mm film stock and a crew for her film project. She wrote the script as she was directing the series, making frequent trips to the village she had scouted for the film, and it was eventually shot by Taheri in 1976 with his wife, Flora Shabaviz, playing the main role. After completion, Nabili edited the film in the US though the post-production work (especially the professional dubbing) indicates that support from Iran must have continued after her return to New York.

Using long shots, static camera, and long takes, Nabili cites the Persian miniature, in which the story is always depicted from a distance, allowing the viewer free interpretation of characters and situations, as her main influence. She also refers to Bertolt Brecht and Robert Bresson, the latter’s influence most evident in the lyrical and quiet sequence in which the film finds momentary poetic release as Roo-Bekheir undresses in the rain.”

Ehsan Khoshbakht1

“It's a tradition I've picked up from Persian miniature and poetry which I have sort of transferred into cinema. I tried to make use of Brecht’s concept of the alienation effect, combining it with my own culture – miniature painting and poetry. All I'm doing is putting a distance between the audience and what is happening.”

Marva Nabili2

“Bressonian in its formal rigour and sense of detachment, the earliest complete surviving feature film directed by an Iranian woman is a hypnotic and quietly radical portrait of resistance, and a passionate rejection of patriarchy.”

Jason Wood3

“With its poetic tone, sparse dialogue and focus on its heroine’s daily life, the film recalls Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman (1975) but owes as much to Iranian director Sohrab Shahid Saless’s films.”

Hossein Eidizadeh4

• 1Ehsan Khoshbakht, “The Sealed Soil,” Notes on Cinematograph, 21 May 2024.
• 2Tom Luddy in conversation with Marva Nabili, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California, 25 January 1978. Audio recording transcribed by Ehsan Khoshbakht on Notes on Cinematograph, 27 April 2021.
• 3Jason Wood, “The Sealed Soil,” BFI London Film Festival, 12 October 2024.
• 4Hossein Eidizadeh, “The female gaze: 100 overlooked films directed by women – The Sealed Soil,” Sight and Sound, 2 January 2022.