THE WHITE STATION

Seifollah Samadian's The White Station ( 1999), featured in Documenta 11, a shot from his high-rise apartment building in Tehran. The White Station is more austere poetic statement , a filmic haiku which focuses on alone woman in black chador in an unprecedented snowstorm that covers Tehran. Her dark silhouette stands out against the white background, as she wrestles with a dark umbrella in the driving snow while she is waiting for the bus. There is no dialogue. Samadian uses direct sound : here sounds of crows and the wind are counterpointed by city noises muffled in the snow.