Far from Home
Sohrab Shahid Saless / DE, IR, 1975 / 92 min.
Compelling images sketch a few days in the life of a Turkish guest-worker in West Berlin in the 1970s, played with subtle detachment by Parviz Sayyad, who manages to capture the deep feeling of loneliness, grinding repetition and fear that grips this man. Dutch première of the digitally restored version.
For this seldom-screened film, Sohrab Shahid Saless drew on his own feeling of displacement, having left behind an impressive career in Iran to make films in West Germany. Few other films have portrayed the mind-numbing repetitiveness of the life of an immigrant – Husseyin from Turkey in this case – as powerfully as Far from Home. It’s as if Husseyin’s whole being is crushed below the heavy press he operates every day: a senseless treadmill. Just like in the game of backgammon that’s played in the film, each of his movements in life is just a minor manoeuvre that takes place within a confined square.
Digital restoration courtesy of Provobis Gesellschaft für Film und Fernsehen mbH and the Shahid Saless Archive.
This is part of
Special screenings
Details
Director
Sohrab Shahid Saless
Production year
1975
Country
DE, IR
Original title
Dar Ghorbat
Length
92 min.
Language
German, Turkish, Persian
Subtitles
ENG
Format
DCP
Part of
Eye Classics
Eye’s collection includes a wealth of classics. With the Eye Classics series, Eye brings film history even closer. Every week, we screen at least three classics from the collection under one recognisable name: Eye Classics.
Share your love for film and become a member of the Eye Society.