Ali, a blind man suffering from a degenerative condition, is on the verge of taking his own life when he is interrupted by the concierge of his building. The police have surrounded the area, searching for a fugitive who may be hiding inside.
As Ali retreats into his apartment, he soon discovers that the fugitive—Leila—is already there. She is distraught, having lost her four-year-old son during a chaotic workers' protest that ended with her being taken into police custody. As Ali and Leila navigate their shared confinement, an unexpected bond forms. For Ali, helping Leila becomes an escape from his own despair, offering him a purpose within the darkness that has consumed his world.
Venice Film Festival. 2022 | Official Selection.
Toronto International Film Festival. 2022 | Official Selection.
São Paulo International Film Festival. 2022 | Official Selection.
Göteborg Film Festival. 2023 | Official Selection.
The initial idea for this movie came from a poem, actually. One should be able to feel the texture of that poem in the main concepts reflected in the movie. When I made my first movie, Wednesday, May 9, I was asked what inspired me, and it was Iranian poet Ferdowsi and his book Shahnameh; for my second film, No Date, No Signature, it was another Iranian poet, Hafez. For my third film, the current, it was yet another ancient Iranian poet, Dehlawi. In his poetry, there’s something I would call poetic madness: it’s a feeling, more than a tangible literary device. As I was writing Beyond the Wall, I tried to feel and employ the same poetic madness. It’s not something you see, it’s something one should feel throughout the movie.
Leila is, in fact, part of Ali’s existence. Also, the way the two relate to one another goes beyond the canons of interpersonal relationships and spills over into the way the movie works. If I had to answer briefly, this is Ali’s story.
What I can say is that through my experience in theatre, more than gaining a theatrical atmosphere, I learnt to understand drama. I can also say that my experience in radio production helped me understand audiences. That may be the influence theatre had on me and on my work in general. The way I wanted scenography to work is for it to be simply realistic. We imagine that someone who is blind does not necessarily have a lot of ornament, colourful wallpaper, things of that sort. We need to easily identify that the apartment we see is Ali’s home. I wanted these choices to work into the film’s believability, which is what we see prima facie. It is the first layer of the movie, and it should take us further into the story. Beneath it, that’s where we find the surreal components of the film…
Vahid Jalilvand discussed Beyond the Wall in an interview with the Venice Film Festival website on Thursday, September 8, 2022 : “A longtime friend of the festival, Jalilvand has previously received critical acclaim and awards for his first two films. This year, his third feature, Beyond the Wall, is competing in the main competition. A sophisticated action film with a gradually unfolding, almost poetic depth, it will be presented at the festival today.”