Cinema Tehran presents: The Sealed Soil + Q&A with Marva Nabili

Cinema Tehran Presents: THE SEALED SOIL (KHAKE SAR BE MOHR)

Q&A with director Marva Bavili following screening.

The earliest surviving Iranian film directed by a woman, Marva Nabili’s astonishing debut is a deftly observant work that conjures the plight of the female subject in a time of political subjugation. The film follows a woman living in a poor village in southwest Iran who must prepare to move in order to accommodate a state-ordered construction project. The Sealed Soil is shot through with criticality and an attentiveness to the inner world of a woman rebelling, in her way, against stifling patriarchy.

This film is preceded by Ebrahim Golestan’s “Courtship” featuring the first and only acting role of the poet Forough Farrokhzad marking the beginnings of the Iranian new wave.

Digitally restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Golden Globe Foundation, Century Arts Foundation, Farhang Foundation, and Mark Amin. Restored from the 16mm original A/B negatives, color reversal internegative, magnetic track and optical track negative. Laboratory services by illuminate Hollywood, Corpus Fluxus, Endpoint Audio Labs, Audio Mechanics, Simon Daniel Sound. Special thanks to Thomas Fucci, Marva Nabili and Garineh Nazarian.