After his film made without government permission was invited to the Cannes Film Festival competition section, Iranian director Ali Asgari is placed under house arrest. During this period, he records home scenes and smog over Tehran in black-and-white autobiographical essay format. Amid hard drive seizures and travel bans, the director unfolds longing and desire through narration, recalling memories of Rome, sisters who cannot see his films, and his mother's language. Within fixed frames and poetic imagery, memory and imagination operate as the final stronghold against political oppression.

Ali Asgari’s Higher than Acidic Clouds recalls, in many ways, the work of earlier masters of Iranian cinema before him. After screening the film at Cannes, Asgari was placed under house arrest—a fate that mirrors the intertwined artistic triumphs and political hardships endured by filmmakers such as Jafar Panahi. His hybrid approach, moving fluidly between fiction and reality, likewise continues this lineage.

In response to state censorship, Asgari creates a rough yet painterly black-and-white vision of forbidden memories. From the apartment where he was confined, Tehran lies shrouded in heavy, toxic smog. The metaphor for an authoritarian regime suffocating creativity is clear, yet the film’s strength lies in showing how the creative impulse persists even under repression. Asgari recalls his mother’s words, screens banned films for his sisters, and, above all, continues to imagine other kinds of cinema.

While the confiscation of his hard drive and the loss of his footage was undoubtedly a severe ordeal for any creator, it simultaneously became the catalyst for an outpouring of inner memories. The result is a quiet hymn to a creative force that no power can ultimately contain.

In a world often constrained by the limitations of reality, my film seeks to explore the boundless and uncontrollable nature of human imagination. Imagination is a force that transcends the physical confines of our existence, offering an escape from the mundane and a portal into the extraordinary. It is limitless, ungovernable, and uniquely personal, thriving even in the most adverse circumstances. 

Imagination cannot be controlled or contained; it is an inherent part of our humanity that defies convention and expectation. There is no power and authority in the universe that can limit our thoughts and imaginations, even if you cannot talk about them, still you can imagine and think so this is a super powerful means to get along with difficult situations, as I had.

• ProducerMilad KHOSRAVI, Ali ASGARI
• Screenplay Ali ASGARI, Ali SHAMS
• Cinematography Arman FAYAZ
• Edit Ehsan VASEGHI
• Sound Abdolreza HEYDARI
• Music Navid DIVAN