Terrestrial Verses (2023) KimStim - DVD

Comprised of nine vignettes, Terrestrial Verses sheds light on the everyday struggles of ordinary citizens in Iran, as they grapple with oppression.

In Tehran, a new father seeks to register the name (insufficiently Islamic, he is told) of his newborn son; a 20-something rideshare driver caught on camera without a hijab attempts to retrieve her impounded car; a man with poem tattoos applies for a driver's license; an elderly woman pleads with the police for the return of her beloved dog. This taut, pulsing drama -- composed of nine deceptively simple, single-take vignettes, each featuring an ordinary Iranian citizen facing an unseen bureaucrat -- brilliantly incarnates the absurdity, hypocrisy, and seeds of defiance that belie authoritarian control.

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