A Fire (Film)

1958. Dir: Ebrahim Golestan. Edited by Forough Farrokhzad.

http://vimeo.com/20373488



"By the late 1950s, Golestan had solidly established himself as a major literary voice with momentous poetic vision. The style he had carefully cultivated in his literary works—two impressive collections of short stories—was now fully at his disposal to transform a simple documentary about a runaway fire in an oilfield into a work of art. From this moment forward, the direct transformation of commissioned documentary to a work of art becomes the defining occasion of Golestan's aesthetic—navigating the creative distance between factual evidence and its affective sublimation. The lyrical diction of Golestan's voice-over in A Fire is strategically located somewhere between the poise of its contemplative nature and the pose of its poetic performance." [Dabashi, M&M]







Reception:

Won the Bronze Medal at the 1961 Venice Film Festival and hence became the first Iranian film to win such international recognition.