A Constant Visual Feast

“Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami open Terrestrial Verses with Tehran’s skyline gradually brightening beneath a welcoming sunrise. The image is deceptive. Rather than a descent into darkness signaling imminent peril, Asgari and Khatami propose that we should be wary of the light instead. In Tehran, atrocities are committed in plain sight, smack dab in the middle of day, concealed only by office doors, assuming the folks committing bother concealing them at all. As if driving the point home, the film punctuates morning’s advent with cacophony comprising birds’ ominous caws, the din of alarms blaring and a chorus of voices joined in layered angst. This is not a happy city.” (Full review at Paste Magazine.)