The Sealed Soil

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 Roo-Bekheir, a woman living in a poor village in southwest Iran who must prepare to move in order to accommodate a state-ordered construction project. We watch as she goes about her everyday routine, a life structured as much by repetitiveness as by social repression. Evoking Akerman and Bresson through its uncompromising rigor, yet marked by its own brand of low-key sensuality, 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. An Arbelos Films and Venera Films release. 

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.