The Sealed Soil

1977 / dir. Marva Nabili / 90 min / New 4K restoration

The earliest complete surviving feature film directed by an Iranian woman, Marva Nabili’s The Sealed Soil chronicles a young woman’s resistance to her forced marriage, a rebellion quickly misinterpreted by her family as demonic possession. Breathtaking in its directorial sophistication and restraint, and unblinking in its critique of institutionalized misogyny, this is a too-long-underseen masterstroke of world cinema. An Arbelos/Venera Films co-release.

Digitally restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Golden Globe Foundation, Century Arts Foundation, Farhang Foundation and Mark Amin. Restored from the 16mm original A/B negatives, color reversal internegative, magnetic track and optical track negative. Laboratory services by illuminate Hollywood, Corpus Fluxus, Endpoint Audio Labs, Audio Mechanics, Simon Daniel Sound. Special thanks to Thomas Fucci, Marva Nabili and Garineh Nazarian.