The Sealed Soil

The Sealed Soil is a 1977 film by Marva Nabili. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

The film traces the "passive revolt" of a young girl who refuses to marry, ^[5] a transformation that can be seen as a metaphor for Iran's transition from tradition to modernity. ^[6] She smuggled the original negative out of Iran and edited it at her university in New York. ^[7] The film was shot without sound. Nabili later added dubbing and sound effects. ^[8] The Sealed Soil met with international critical acclaim, notably winning an award at the London Film Festival in 1977. ^[9] The film is the second feature film made by a female director in Iran. ^[5] The film was never shown in Iran and was finally officially released in the United States in 2025. ^[10]

References

1. "The Sealed Soil". Film at Lincoln Center.
2. "The Sealed Soil". BAM.org.
3. "Mideast Feminism: Views of Female Film Makers (Published 1978)". June 9, 1978.
4. Erickson, Steve (4 October 2024). "Film Reviews: New York Film Festival -- A Trio of Memorable Recent Restorations - The Arts Fuse". artsfuse.org. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
5. Raiman, Paola (July–August 2019). "Marva Nabili". Cahiers du cinéma . No. 757. p. 39.
6. Naficy, Hamid (1985). "Iranian Writers, the Iranian Cinema, and the Case of Dash Akol". Iranian Studies. pp. 231–251. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
7. Naficy, Hamid (5 June 2018). An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking. Princeton University Press. p. 73. ISBN   978-0-691-18621-4 . Retrieved 9 September 2019.
8. "NYFF 62 Review: Patriarchy, repression and routine in 'The Sealed Soil'". 7 October 2024.
9. dos Santos, Júlia (18 August 2017). "The Sealed Soil: Meet the classic female-headed Iranian woman" (PDF). Delirium Nerd. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
10. Hoberman, J. (28 May 2025). "'The Sealed Soil': Modesty and Its Discontents". The New York Times.

External links

• The Sealed Soil at IMDb
• The Sealed Soil at Rotten Tomatoes