Movie specifications
Production: Ali Asgari / Taat Films
Milad Khosravi / Seven Springs Pictures
Director: Ali Asgari
Sound: Abdolreza Heydari
Cinematography: Arman Fayaz
Writers: Ali Asgari, Ali Shams
Music: Navid Divan
Color Grading: Farbod Jalali
Editing: Ehsan Vaseghi
Narrator: Ali Asgari
VFX: Kamyar Shafiepour
SYNOPSIS
After the premiere of his film Terrestrial Verses (co-directed by Alireza Khatami) in Cannes, Ali Asgari was banned from traveling. However, filmmakers like Asgari are not easily deterred from practicing their art, despite relentless repressive interference. In stubborn resistance to his growing pessimism about the way his city is developing, Asgari expresses his dreams and reflections in countless apocalyptic shades of gray. He muses about his mother’s native language, his sisters who could never see his films in the cinema, and Rome, where he lived for ten years. But above all, the filmmaker longs to go outside and fly above the city at a height from which all people are equal. He is left with his memories and imagination, the only things that cannot be confiscated.
Executive Producer:
Ali Asgari / Taat Films
Milad Khosravi / Seven Springs Pictures
Co-production:
Yann Tonnar / Manufactura Pictures
Shawkat Amin Korki / Storyline
Alireza Khatami / Tell Tall Tales
World sales and festival handling:
Seven Springs Pictures
Links and Reviews
After premiering “Terrestrial Verses” at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, Iranian director Ali Asgari returned home to Tehran to find out he was banned from traveling for eight months… Read More
Ali Asgari’s “Higher than Acidic Clouds” opens in closed spaces with an eye to the boundless. Asgari’s voice can’t be contained, straitened, exploding into affiliations with other faraway places, Iceland and Italy, while home in Tehran feels like a ‘stranger’. This essay documentary transpires in the shadow of Asgari’s house arrest in 2023… Read More
Ali Asgari traz o íntimo e pessoal para compor seu retrato onírico de resistência
Ao final de Crônicas do Irã, os prédios de Teerã começam a desabar enquanto a terra treme, mas as montanhas permanecem imóveis no horizonte. Na janela do apartamento em que Ali Asgari retrata a si mesmo em Higher Than Acidic Clouds… Read More
Higher Than Acidic Clouds
Directed by Ali Asgari. At VIFF Centre on May 7 at 5:30 p.m.
Meditative and exquisitely shot in black and white, Higher Than Acidic Clouds isn’t exactly uplifting, but it does offer a sense of promise. Director Ali Asgari has every reason to be angry with Iran, the country that, on some level, he still loves. After debuting at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 with Terrestrial Verses… Read More
The 42nd edition of the Torino Film Festival swooped into town the last week of November 2024. Known for its lowkey approach to fanfare and its emphasis on showcasing works by first and second-time directors in the feature section, this year’s event made some radical turns. One of the changes was seen in the documentary section featuring Ali Asgari, which expanded to having 16 films in its varied field of competitors… Read More
Awards & Festival Screening
IDFA - International Documentary Film Amsterdam - Envision Competition
Tallinn Black Nights IFF - Best of Docs
Torino International Film Festival - Documentary Competition
Marrakech International film Festival - Documentary Competition
Goa International Film Festival - Special Screening
Pune International Film Festival - Non-competitive section
Luxembourg IFF - Non-competitive section
Visions du Réel - Highlights
Hot Docs IDFF - World Showcase
Istanbul IFF
DOXA International Documentary Film Festival
Guadalajara International Film Festival
DMZ International Documentary Film Festival
Tirana International Film Festival
Hong Kong International Film Festival
Flicker Rhode Island Film Festival
