January 6, 2024
FILM: TERRESTRIAL VERSES
DIRECTED BY: ALI ASGARI, ALIREZA KHATAMI
STARRING: SADAF ASGARI, ARDESHIR KAZEMI, GOHAR KHEIRANDISH
RATING: 4 stars out of 4
By Dan Pal
Terrestrial Verses is an extremely powerful statement on social rules in Tehran, Iran. Yet it is so simply produced that one might overlook the immensity of what it is accomplishing. Writer/Directors Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami serve up a series of vignettes that are each shot in one take and feature an average Tehran citizen attempting to defend their needs and make their lives better while being interviewed by government officials or employers who are bound by their own scripts about what is right and what is wrong.
There are nine named characters here who each get about ten minutes of screen time. Each is talking to someone off-screen and often challenging what they are being asked. For instance, the first one features a man attempting to get his newborn child’s name put on his birth certificate. He and his wife have decided that the boy be named after her favorite author whose first name is David. The man is told that David is an unacceptable choice because it is Western and non-religious. (Other religions may have a different take on this…) When the man asks why they can’t use the name, he is repeatedly told that it is not allowed. Other complex Muslim names are suggested while the man attempts to hold his ground to no avail. This scene immediately suggests the limited choice the government has given a couple with something as simple as naming a child.
Another vignette features a girl named Selena who is seen wearing headphones and joyfully dancing in front of a store mirror in her street clothes while her mother shops for a “proper” outfit and hijab for a school ceremony. The girl asks why she can’t just wear what she has on but is forced to try on an oversized chosen piece of clothing that essentially stunts her ability to be herself and freely move the way she does in her street clothes. It is distressing to see this limitation put on her knowing how little this outfit reflects who she prefers to be.
A couple of the vignettes feature people getting what many of us would view as undeniably harassed. One of them is woman who during a job interview is asked about her boyfriends. She asks in return how this is related to the job. The more she resists the more she is harassed by the interviewer, leaving her to end to the interview and being called a bitch. One man, seeking a driver’s license is asked to remove his clothes and bare the tattoos that appear all over his body. As if there is any possible relationship between getting a license and expressing oneself with tattoos.
While some of these stories come off as jaw-dropping and laughable, they represent the many constraints people find themselves in throughout this culture. There is a lightly touched upon but highly relevant thematic thread that travels through a couple vignettes which notes that Iran sits on an earthquake fault line. Could the filmmakers be suggesting that what the country is professing and requiring rests on shaky grounds that could crumble at any minute? I think so.
That a film like this can be made is a major accomplishment in itself. The fact that each story is so compelling and well-written is to witness a major work of art as two Iranian born filmmakers express how ludicrous so many of the culture’s rules are and expose them to the rest of the world. We observe from our own Western eyes and no doubt see how faulty and illogical many of these ideas are.
Terrestrial Verses played at the Chicago International Film Festival in October. Based on this sole viewing I ranked it at number two on my Top Ten list of 2023. It will be screening January 7th, 9th, and 13th at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. On February 5th it will be screening at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago. This is a film that needs to be made more widely available.
FILM: TERRESTRIAL VERSES
DIRECTED BY: ALI ASGARI, ALIREZA KHATAMI
STARRING: SADAF ASGARI, ARDESHIR KAZEMI, GOHAR KHEIRANDISH
RATING: 4 stars out of 4
By Dan Pal
Terrestrial Verses is an extremely powerful statement on social rules in Tehran, Iran. Yet it is so simply produced that one might overlook the immensity of what it is accomplishing. Writer/Directors Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami serve up a series of vignettes that are each shot in one take and feature an average Tehran citizen attempting to defend their needs and make their lives better while being interviewed by government officials or employers who are bound by their own scripts about what is right and what is wrong.
There are nine named characters here who each get about ten minutes of screen time. Each is talking to someone off-screen and often challenging what they are being asked. For instance, the first one features a man attempting to get his newborn child’s name put on his birth certificate. He and his wife have decided that the boy be named after her favorite author whose first name is David. The man is told that David is an unacceptable choice because it is Western and non-religious. (Other religions may have a different take on this…) When the man asks why they can’t use the name, he is repeatedly told that it is not allowed. Other complex Muslim names are suggested while the man attempts to hold his ground to no avail. This scene immediately suggests the limited choice the government has given a couple with something as simple as naming a child.
Another vignette features a girl named Selena who is seen wearing headphones and joyfully dancing in front of a store mirror in her street clothes while her mother shops for a “proper” outfit and hijab for a school ceremony. The girl asks why she can’t just wear what she has on but is forced to try on an oversized chosen piece of clothing that essentially stunts her ability to be herself and freely move the way she does in her street clothes. It is distressing to see this limitation put on her knowing how little this outfit reflects who she prefers to be.
A couple of the vignettes feature people getting what many of us would view as undeniably harassed. One of them is woman who during a job interview is asked about her boyfriends. She asks in return how this is related to the job. The more she resists the more she is harassed by the interviewer, leaving her to end to the interview and being called a bitch. One man, seeking a driver’s license is asked to remove his clothes and bare the tattoos that appear all over his body. As if there is any possible relationship between getting a license and expressing oneself with tattoos.
While some of these stories come off as jaw-dropping and laughable, they represent the many constraints people find themselves in throughout this culture. There is a lightly touched upon but highly relevant thematic thread that travels through a couple vignettes which notes that Iran sits on an earthquake fault line. Could the filmmakers be suggesting that what the country is professing and requiring rests on shaky grounds that could crumble at any minute? I think so.
That a film like this can be made is a major accomplishment in itself. The fact that each story is so compelling and well-written is to witness a major work of art as two Iranian born filmmakers express how ludicrous so many of the culture’s rules are and expose them to the rest of the world. We observe from our own Western eyes and no doubt see how faulty and illogical many of these ideas are.
Terrestrial Verses played at the Chicago International Film Festival in October. Based on this sole viewing I ranked it at number two on my Top Ten list of 2023. It will be screening January 7th, 9th, and 13th at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. On February 5th it will be screening at the Gene Siskel Center in Chicago. This is a film that needs to be made more widely available.