Terrestrial Verses
Playing: Saturday, February 22nd, 7 p.m. - 9:20 p.m.
Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard, this film offers a satirical take on the mundane absurdities of life in modern-day Iran through nine vignettes. The stories progress along a rough timeline from birth to death, each shot in a static camera angle, with a single petitioner negotiating with an authority figure who remains just outside the frame and speaks in the language of doublespeak.
-
Iran
-
Sadaf Asgari
Sarvin Zabetian
Arghavan Shabani
-
Due to differing sensitivities from person to person, the MEFF does not usually provide subject matter trigger advisories for their films. In addition to the content on our website about the film, further age-appropriateness information for particular films can be found on IMDb as well as through internet searches.
-
Nominee for Un Certain Regard Award - Cannes Film Festival (2023)
The Filmmakers
Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami are renowned Iranian filmmakers celebrated for their poignant storytelling and unique cinematic styles. Together, they represent a vital voice in contemporary Iranian cinema, combining artistic innovation with deeply human stories that resonate across cultures.
Both filmmakers have garnered international recognition for their distinct yet complementary storytelling sensibilities. Asgari’s films, such as Disappearance (2017) and his award-winning short films, often focus on the lives of marginalized individuals, using a minimalist and realist approach to explore themes of societal constraints and personal struggle. Khatami, best known for Oblivion Verses (2017) and The Things You Kill (2025), blends poetic visuals with elements of magic realism, crafting deeply reflective narratives about memory, loss, and humanity.
