Khak-e sar bé mohr / The Sealed Soil (2024 restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive)

Marva Nabili: خاک مهر شده / Khak-e sar bé mohr / The Sealed Soil (IR 1977).

Marva Nabili: خاک مهر شده / Khak-e sar bé mohr / The Sealed Soil (IR 1977).

خاک مهر شده / La Terre scellée / Die versiegelte Erde.

    IR 1977. D: Marva Nabili. Scen.: Marva Nabili. F.: Barbod Taheri. Mus.: Hooreh. Int.: Flora Shabaviz (Roo-Bekheir). Prod.: Marva Nabili. DCP. 90’. Col.

    Copy from UCLA Film & Television Archive Library

    In Farsi with English subtitles on DCP. E-subtitles in Italian by Valentina Cristini.

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2024: Cinemalibero.

    Introduced by Marva Nabili (via cellphone video)

    Introduced by Jillian Borders (UCLA)

    Viewed at Jolly Cinema, 23 June 2024

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

Ehsan Khoshbakht (Bologna 2024 Catalogue): " Khak-e Sar bé Mohr chronicles the repetitive and repressed life of Roo-Bekheir, a young woman in a poor village in southwest Iran, and her resistance to forced marriage. It’s a formally rigorous, if emotionally distanced, critique of patriarchy and the spurious reform of Iranian agricultural life that was a factor in the 1979 revolution. "

" 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 16 mm 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 a momentary poetic release as Roo-Bekheir undresses in the rain. This measured and restrained rebellion against patriarchy – Nabili’s only feature, other than a TV film made for PBS in 1983 – might explain the renewed interest in her work in post-Woman/Life/Freedom Iran, even if Khak-e Sar bé Mohr was never screened in its country of production and a generation saw it only on ghastly VHS tapes. " Ehsan Khoshbakht (Bologna 2024 Catalogue)

AA: I among many became aware of Marva Nabili's The Sealed Soil thanks to Mark Cousins, who in his mega-series Women Make Film (GB 2019) highlighted it in episodes 4, 7 and 11 (chapters 10 Journey, 18 Bodies, and 31 Leave Out). Since then it has been a "must see" for me.

It is a work of imagist poetry, belonging to a special lineage in Iranian cinema. The images are completely realistic, yet they emanate a spiritual presence and an imagination that transcends the limits of the ordinary. I would call it the presence of the sacred in everything.

There is also a poetic kinship between Iranian cinema and its northern neighbours Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine, personified in the cinema of Sergei Paradjanov, also inspired by Persian miniatures. The tableau aesthetics reminiscent of early cinema, the plan-séquence approach, the emphasis on the image instead of storytelling.

The Sealed Soil is a movie about quiet violence inflicted on the young woman Roo-Bekheir (Flora Shabaviz) in a patriarchal, traditional village society. Marriage is overdue, and like in Japanese shomin-geki of the 1950s, such as Kozaburo Yoshimura's Yoru no kawa / Undercurrent shown in this festival, the young woman would prefer to remain free. By the way, this is also a major theme in the Finnish folklore collection Kanteletar based on ancient oral tradition in poems sung by women.

Finally, Roo experiences a fit of possession, and an official exorcist is summoned to help her get rid of the demon. After the elaborate rite, Roo is numb and expressionless like a zombie. There is a proposal waiting for her.

Shot in Academy and in subdued colour by Barbod Taheri, with meaningful images of roosters, Persian carpets and children's games. Nature is ever-present in the sound world and in scenes of rain escalating into a rainstorm. Roo's freedom is memorably expressed in a scene where she is alone by the river in the rain and takes off her clothes. The scene is special because it is not about exploitation, quite the contrary.

The 2024 restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive is refined and vivid, based on 16 mm original negatives. A remarkable work of art has been rediscovered for the world.