Terrestrial Verses

[O]ne of the most brilliant and provocative films to emerge from Iran recently.

If the film feels at first a bit too obviously conceived, like a series of anti-authoritarian PSAs, it accrues depth as it goes on, finding more and more subtleties of absurdity and humiliation.

Because each vignette is no more than a few minutes long and consists of Kafkaesque conversations that border on the absurd, “Terrestrial Verses” operates with a cumulative effect.

The sense of repetition that the film leans into in order to acknowledge the inescapable grip of the state is as much a feature as it is a bug.

Elegant, eloquent and unwavering in its determination to reveal the plight of the individual Iranians it showcases, Terrestrial Versus is confident, compelling filmmaking.

This film is as muted in its approach to character and drama as its color palette, but the result is devastating.

If you’re one of those people who’s felt guilty about finding some Iranian cinema a little too ascetic and “pure,” this short, sharp feature will prove their stripped-down approach can be devastatingly effective.

Set in modern-day Tehran, Asgari and Khatami work to expose with prickly realism and dashes of absurdity, the stringent rules and customs that still apparently govern much of societal behavior in Iran.


Quite clearly influenced by [Roy] Andersson... Terrestrial Verses is a mosaic comprised of ordinary people whose paths have brought them face-to-face with institutional power.

Provocative, engrossing and poetic.