DAC proudly presents "Ideal Woman In the House of Lepers," a talk by celebrated Iranian playwright Naghmeh Samini, about Forough Farrokhzad's short documentary, "The House is Black." Following a screening of the film, Naghmeh Samini will talk about femininity, feminine body, poetry, and cinema in Forough's film.

This presentation is entirely in Persian.

About Naghmeh Samini

Naghmeh Samini was born in Iran and received her BA in Drama and MA in Cinema both from the University of Tehran. She earned her PhD in Drama and mythology. More than twenty of her plays have been staged in Iran, France, and India, and some have received readings in the United Kingdom and the U.S. This award-winning playwright has also written several screenplays. She has been working as a professor at the University of Tehran since 2005 and has also run several workshops in Iran and abroad (Japan, Malaysia). As a researcher she has published several books, including two significant ones about “A Thousand and One Nights” and Drama and Mythology in Iran. She also has published many articles. Some of her awards and achievements include: Best Iranian Playwright for The Red Woolen Coat in 2014; Best theoretical book in Drama, Drama and Mythology in Iran”; Book of the year in Iran for Myth's Theatre/ An Archetypical Approach to Iranian Dramatic Literature 2009; Best playwright in the Second playwright's forum festival, 2008; Best screenwriter in International Fajr film festival 2007 for Main Line; Best playwright in the city of Tehran 2005; and Best playwright in International Fajr theatre festival in the years of 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. Her play, The Fiction of the King and Mathematician was selected by UNESCO to be one of its yearly books in 2012. She is a visiting scholar at the University of Washington School of Drama.

About Forough Farrokhzad

Forough Farrokhzad (December 29, 1934 – February 13, 1967) was an influential Iranian poet and film director. She was a controversial modernist poet and an iconoclast, writing from a female point of view. Continue reading here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forough_Farrokhzad

About House Is Black documentary

The House Is Black (Persian: خانه سیاه است‎) is an acclaimed Iranian documentary short film directed by Forough Farrokhzad.

The film is a look at life and suffering in a leper colony and focuses on the human condition and the beauty of creation. It is spliced with Farrokhzad's narration of quotes from the Old Testament, the Koran and her own poetry. The film features footage from the Bababaghi Hospice leper colony. It was the only film she directed before her death in 1967. During shooting, she became attached to a child of two lepers, whom she later adopted.

Although the film attracted little attention outside Iran when released, it has since been recognized as a landmark in Iranian film. Reviewer Eric Henderson described the film as "[o]ne of the prototypal essay films, The House is Black paved the way for the Iranian New Wave." Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_Is_Black

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