Film: THE STRANGER AND THE FOG (GHARIBEH VA MEH)

Another holy grail of Cinema-ye Motafavet (Iranian New Wave) has been found and brought back to life. Impossible to see for decades, Bahram Beyzaie’s dazzling Gharibeh va meh, about a mysterious stranger arriving at a coastal village in a drifting boat and falling for a woman, is now fully restored from original camera and sound negatives.

In this endlessly symbolic tale, ghosts of the past, narrow-minded villagers and forces beyond the control of the characters take the viewer into a dizzying labyrinth of rituals. In the film’s meticulously structured circular narrative, characters, times and spaces rhyme and mirror each other, turning filmmaking into an act of dreaming. Gharibeh va meh and later Cherike-ye Tara represent one of the strongest duos of Iranian cinema; in both, characters are the product of each other’s imagination before transitioning into myth. They also share the mysteries of the sea, the use of pre-existing folk music instead of a musical score, the presence of myth and symbolism, heavy influence from Persian classical theatre and literature, and giving prominence (in terms of both attention/desire and control) to strong-willed women who transcend the confines of the victimized women of 1970s Iranian cinema. –Ehsan Khoshbakht (for Il Cinema Ritrovato)

The Stranger and the Fog was restored in 4K using the original camera and sound negatives and was carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata in 2023. Color grading was supervised by Bahram Beyzaie. With special thanks to Ehsan Khoshbakht and Mozhdeh Shamsai.