Forugh Farrokzhad, who died at the age of 32, was an influential Iranian poet and filmmaker. She was found controversial in her home country, and her work was banned for a long time, mainly because of her feminist voice. Incidentally, she often nuanced this herself: "Gender does not play any role in art, that very idea is unethical. But of course my poems have a feminine look, after all, I am a woman," she once said in a radio interview.

Her ‘protest poetry’ is also palpable in her films, including The House is Black which is set in a leper colony in northern Iran. There, Farrokhzad depicts the daily life of its inhabitants, not shying away from the various stages of leprosy. In a very raw and poetic manner, she shows life with the disease.