Still Life

Sohrab Shahid Saless's 1974 Iranian film follows an old crossing keeper on a remote railway line and his wife. He raises and lowers the barrier; she weaves carpets. The story is that repetition itself, and it is broken when a man who has done the same work for thirty years is retired. Saless's method is to refuse to narrate events entirely: the scenes are long, the camera still and there is almost no dialogue. That shows poverty as a continuity rather than a drama. The film won an award at Berlin and is counted among the most radical works of Iranian cinema before the revolution. Saless left the country soon after. The pace is extremely slow. Who it's for: viewers interested in Iranian cinema and slow cinema. Who it's not for: anyone wanting incident, or who will find static framings unbearable.