Friday, July 20, 2012

Shedding Light on the Black House


   The House is Black is a film by Forough Farrokhzad. It is a short documentary about the lives of people suffering from leprosy. There are several scenes of the deformities of leprosy in a particular village. The documentary also explains that in areas where leprosy is treated, the disease became eradicated. The tone of the movie is dark and grim. Farrokhzad attempts to portray a feeling of hopelessness with her words and some of the images shown. Actually, the film is full of courage, bravery, happiness, and faith.
            At the beginning of the film there was a voice of a male narrator saying, “There is no shortage of ugliness in the world," before Farrokhzad takes over and starts reading, "If man closed his eyes to it, there would be even more" (The House is Black). Those statements and sentences are attempts to throw the audience off. The movie does contain ugliness but it is the ugliness of leprosy, not the villagers. Throughout the film, Farrokhzad narrates from the Old Testament, the Koran, and her own poetry. Those words are very evocative, yet they were her opinion. There was not a villager that gave the impression of feeling the need to “fly away”. She only spoke about those people wanting to escape their lives. She sees them as victims and helpless.  
The villagers are actually heroes. They live and function with deformities and sickness that we would not be able to survive in our modern world for that long. There is an irony of the prayer she films the children reciting, thanking God for all their body parts that allow them to interact with each other and the rest of the world by saying, “Thank you, God, for giving me eyes to see the marvels of the world” (The House is Black). “Thank you, God, for giving me ears to hear beautiful music” (The House is Black). Despite the fact that those body parts are obviously deformed, unattractive, and unpleasant to probably to the rest of the world, they never question God about it. In our world today, most of us would question God and not accept the way we are. “I thank you God for creating the flowing water and fruiting trees” (The House is Black). The children are thankful for things that the average person takes for granted. They see it as God offering them the same things that everyone else has.  
Farrokhzad asks, "Who is this in Hell praising you, O Lord?" guessing how they can be gratified for things that will not last them a long time (The House is Black). She downplays the fact that belief and faith are some the strengths of these people and that is why they have the courage to accept the way they are. That’s the beauty of life. Despite everything, there are children playing, adults laughing and talking, and people working in synchronization to make a pleasant life out of a bad circumstance. There's even a wedding between two lepers in the village. It brings almost everyone in town and it also symbolizes that we don’t have to be perfect to enjoy life. The children laughing and playing are rays of light through this dark film. There is the feeling of togetherness amongst the villagers as they sing and dance in celebrations of being alive. A simple ball gives these people pleasure and creates laughter.
There is a portion of the film that shows medical treatment for the lepers. Even during these potentially painful treatments and therapies, the lepers remain positive. Another scene shows the villagers bringing their trays and dishes to a place where they receive food. The mood amongst the villagers is calm and cooperative. There is no fighting, yelling, or evidence of greed during this time of distributing rationalized proportions. We have seen scenes on current news stations that show similar situations of hunger and disease, only to see the ones receiving aid becoming violent in the distribution process.
            The movie ends in a classroom scene. The teacher asks a young boy about being thankful for his parents. The boy replies by saying that he has neither a mother nor a father. This appears to be another attempt to convince the audience that the situation is grim. The teacher moves on and asks another child to name some beautiful things. The child is able to recite what he believes is beautiful without hesitation. The passages of the Old Testament that the students read are positive and full of praise to God.
            In conclusion, Forough Farrokhzad did make a fantastic film. In all of her attempts to paint a picture of a struggling, suffering, and miserable village of lepers, beauty and light are visible amongst the people. She uses the deformities to sway the viewer into believing that we must look and acknowledge the ugliness. Her poetry describes sadness and desperation. The attitudes and expression of the villagers is the opposite. In the beginning of the film, she made reference that there will be an increase of ugliness if man ignores it. When the ugliness in the movie is ignored, and the people are viewed as survivors of their circumstance, making Farrokhzad’s reference invalid. The villagers were able to cope with their circumstance. This film can be a lesson to those of us that don’t suffer from disfiguring and painful illnesses. We don’t have to live in material beauty as long as we are able to find beauty within ourselves. We should not question God for our shortcomings, but be ever grateful for our blessings. Simple things such as vision and hearing should not be taken for granted, and are some of the greatest gifts, along with the gift of life. 

Works Cited
The House is Black. Dir. Forough Farrokhzad. 1963. YouTube. 1 October 2011.    www.youtube.com.  

Written by student: Donald

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