Terrestrial Verses

Original title: Ayeh haye zamini
Genre: Political drama / Satire
Director: Ali Asgari, Alireza Khatami
Country: Iran
Year of production: 2023
Czas: 77 min

Awards and nominations:
2023 Cannes Film Festival: “Un Certain Regard” Award – nomination
2024 Philosophical Film Festival: Golden Owl – Best Feature, Audience Award

“Terrestrial Verses” borrows its title from an apocalyptic poem by a controversial author Forugh Farrokhzad. Like the poem, the film predicts annihilation of the world dominated by patriarchy, mercilessness, and systemic humiliation. Filmmakers Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami begin their film with a panorama of a big city illuminated by the rising sun. Tehran wakes up and along with it millions of people going about their daily business and struggling to change their lives for the better: a father unsuccessfully tries to give a foreign-sounding name to his newborn child; a student tries to avoid a penalty for riding a motorbike with her boyfriend; an elderly lady does whatever she can to engage reluctant police into searching for her missing dog. In nine stories Asgari and Khatami take viewers for a journey through contemporary Iran trying to highlight the country's problems. The filmmakers don’t abstain from humour to list absurdities of Iranian reality, never forgetting that confrontation with representatives of political and religious order, however funny it may be, can also be humiliating, painful, and dangerous.

Author: Bartek Tesarz

Directors:
Ali Asgari – an acclaimed Iranian filmmaker whose short and feature films were presented at the most important international festivals. “More Than Two Hours” (2013) and “The Silence” (2016) were nominated for Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His feature directorial debut, “Disappearance”, was shown in the Horizons sections at the Venice Film Festival.

Alireza Khatami – “Terrestrial Verses” is his second feature. His debut, “Oblivion Verses”, was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize and the Venice Horizons Award for best screenplay. “Terrestrial Verses” is another collaboration between the two directors. Their earlier film, “Until Tomorrow”, was presented in the Panorama section at the Berlin Film Festival in 2022.

2024-12-10

20:15

   subtitles in Polish and English