Terrestrial Verses: Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami’s film presents stories showcasing the social restrictions that regular people in Iran face in a series of independent vignettes. Structurally, they are all the same: shot in a single take, in static frames, where a person faces impositions from a minor authority figure. The stories are increasingly mind-boggling, showing how religious fundamentalists (in this case, but any meddling state, actually) can impact a life in unexpected ways. The victims are spread equally gender-wise, but the aggression suffered by women is arguably much more relevant, even if not one of the episodes shows any kind of physical violence. The whole is certainly very fascinating to watch.

Cinematographer Adib Sobhani shoots all the episodes in neutral, almost bureaucratic frames, mirroring the way the authority figures (which are only heard, never seen) behave. Production designer Hamed Aslani’s work is great, giving each setting a lot of appropriate character. The acting is generally very good, with all the unseen characters being capably voiced by the cast. Out of the other characters, the two that stand out the most are played by Sarvin Zabetian (who plays a student who is accused of getting to school on a motorcycle) and Sadaf Asgari (a driver who is accused of letting her hair out while driving her car)