The Sealed Soil

The earliest surviving female-directed Iranian film presents a seething and sensual portrait of a teenager resisting the bonds of patriarchy. At 18, Roo-Bekheir is already considered past prime marrying age by her fellow villagers, who ostracise her for refusing a string of proposals from would-be suitors; moreover, she is resistant to a government-mandated construction project that’s forcing her entire village to relocate. When her family becomes convinced that their daughter’s unruly defiance of her stifling circumstances is the work of evil spirits, they seek help from a local exorcist. Pushed to the brink, Roo-Bekheir remains determined to maintain any independence she can grasp . Shot in secret by filmmaker Marva Nabili and smuggled out of Iran to New York, where she completed the edit in exile, The Sealed Soil was never shown in its home country and has rarely screened abroad. Now, thanks to a recent digital restoration from the original 16mm negatives, the film is able to take its place in the cinematic canon as a feminist masterpiece and a key work of the Iranian New Wave. Recalling Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles in its attentiveness to daily rituals and the filmography of Robert Bresson in its formal rigour, The Sealed Soil is a miraculous artefact of pre-revolution rebellion. “One of the most prolific pieces of feminist cinema that, in nearly every respect, breaks boundaries.” – Washington Square News