Terrestrial Verses

Terrestrial Verses, directed by Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami, is an Iranian film satirizing the absurdities of everyday life in modern Iran through nine vignettes, each shot with a single static camera and no cuts, in which a character faces off against an offscreen bureaucrat or authority figure enforcing arbitrary rules. Shot in just seven days and self-financed after the directors struggled to find conventional backing, it was the only Iranian film shown in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. After the Cannes premiere, Iranian authorities confiscated director Ali Asgari's passport and barred him from both leaving the country and making films; Alireza Khatami, a Canadian citizen, was exempt from this punishment, and some cast members also had their passports and electronic devices confiscated. Who it's for: anyone curious about an Iranian film satirizing bureaucratic absurdity through nine static, unbroken vignettes, whose release led to a travel and work ban on one of its directors. Who it's not for: those wanting a traditional film built around a single plot, since this is assembled from independent short scenes.