The House is Black (1963)
Directed by Forugh Farrokhzad
The House is Black shines a spotlight on a leper colony in Northern Iran and sets about making sure that this community isn't forgotten, and that a connection exists which might help those who have ended up there. It's director is Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad, and she narrates the part of the film that is poetic and religious in nature - Ebrahim Golestan, her lover at the time, also narrates, with objective and factual information. He twice delivers the important information that leprosy isn't an untreatable disease, it's treatable and these people haven't been hopeless cases, but instead cast aside by poverty and the 'couldn't care less' attitude of society towards them. The film is vivid, honest and doesn't shy away from showing the deformations of the people who live here, but it's not a horror show exploiting them with a mind to shock and titillate it's audience. In fact, there's a tremendous amount of beauty in it, both visually and in it's poetic narration.
Here in the colony birds are shown flying in the sky, a dog tends to her adorable puppies and children play happily with whatever they can get their hands on. A disfigured man sings happily, and his song is infectious (a bad choice of words perhaps.) A woman breastfeeds her child lovingly. People residing there play games, brush their hair and apply makeup. There's laughter, smiling and dancing. I was really struck by how much joy and beauty there was, infused with poetry and religious scripture, which at first sounds cruelly ironic (God is thanked for hands, feet and things these people have been denied through no fault of their own) but as time goes by seems to reinforce that these people are God's children. The Bababaghi Hospice leper colony did in fact see a remarkable transformation after the film was shown, and many more doctors found their way to it to help these people. Forugh Farrokhzad is said to have shown no fear whatsoever of physical contact with the people there, and inspired not only the people who live there but many who have seen the film.
What can I say about a film like this? A short documentary about a poor leper colony would be initially though of as either something to inspire morbid curiosity or a depressing and sad postscript to the lives of those briefly captured on camera. Instead it's one of the most inspiring and beautiful pieces of filmmaking you're ever likely to see, and transforms a film which doesn't shy away from it's disfigured subjects into a radiantly beautiful and lyrically wonderful 20-odd minutes of moviemaking. It doesn't ask for help for these people, it
inspires people to help and change their attitudes. It's a profoundly spiritual film. I had a little trouble reading the subtitles while watching it as they blend in with the bright whites of the black and white photography, but this isn't really the fault of the film itself, just a difficulty inherent in subtitling black and white films overall - if you'd changed the words to black then they'd be disappearing into the black portions.
A profoundly moving film which has a factual and poetic voice, while at the same time letting the people it's about have their own voice, all at the same time. It demystifies, and truly finds what is beneath the skin - showing us simply people instead of lepers.