Since we live in a society, interacting with authority is inescapable. Whether it be getting your birth certificate, being called to the principal’s office, or attending an interview with a prospective employer, from birth to death, we have to deal with authority, but these interactions become much more difficult under an authoritarian regime. Terrestrial Verses depict fairly mundane day-to-day interactions, but through nine vignettes framed with a static camera, aimed at a person trying to negotiate with someone more powerful just outside the frame, these mundane interactions become satirically absurd, with doublespeak hinting at the ways ordinary people navigate, adapt, or resist the arbitrary restrictions imposed upon them.

The film never shows the authority figures in the frame. It makes sense for a film portraying ordinary people, but the approach is brilliant because it highlights the words that these ordinary people would hear every time.