25.02.25, 20:30, The Sealed Soil (1977)

Rooy-Bekheir is a young woman from a rural area in Iran. As her community prepares to move due to a new government construction project, she adamantly resists social pressure to have to marry. A rediscovered gem of Iranian cinema history, Marva Nabili's The Sealed Soil is considered a feminist masterpiece reminiscent of Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman (1975), among others. The lived time slips by slowly as small and big stories unfold.

The Sealed Soil is a hypnotic and quietly radical portrait of resistance to patriarchy at the time of the strict Khomeini regime, just before the 1979 revolution.

The film magazine Sight & Sound praised Nabili for its poetic tone, sparse dialogues and the director's special attention to the daily, small life of the female lead (Flora Shabaviz). Long untraceable, this masterpiece was recently restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and now once again claims its place in the pantheon of Iranian cinema.

This film will be introduced by translator and film journalist Mahdieh Fahimi.