New Iranian Cinema

Pre-requisites for enrolment

This is an introductory course on New Iranian Cinema. No previous knowledge is expected for this course.

Content of Course

New Iranian Cinema, in its post-revolutionary phase has received world wide critical attention, wining regular awards at prestigious film festivals around the globe. The aesthetic qualities and cinematic sensibilities that helped create the New Iranian Cinema were influenced by Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave, but Iranian Cinema developed its own distinctive style, informed by a visual poetics and language that brings together the rich history of Iranian art forms such as drama (ta’ziyeh), poetry and visual culture. After the 1979 revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, new guidelines were established by the state to ensure that films made in Iran were produced according to the codes and conventions of an Islamic “system of modesty” (hejab in its broadest sense). Paradoxically, these censorship rules enabled filmmakers to create a new filmic grammar, which in a constant negotiation with state censors, contributed to a visual aesthetics that is distinctive to Iranian cinema.

The Iranian New Wave (Pre-revolution)

1. Sohrab Shahid Sales: Realism and Neorealism Iranian Style. Screening: Still Life (1974, 89 min). Suggested reading: Hamid Dabashi, “Still Life” in Masters, 193-220. Hamid Naficy,  “Neorealism Iranian Style” in Global Neorealism, 226-239.

From Iranian New Wave to New Iranian Cinema (Post-revolution)

2. Abbas Kiarostami: In Whose Gaze? Screening: The Wind Will Cary Us (1999, 115 min). Suggested reading: Joan Copjec, “The Object-Gaze: Shame, Hejab, Cinema.” Filozofski Vestnik: XXVII (2) 161-83. Negar Mottahedeh, Displaced Allegories: Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema, 89-139.

3. Rakhshan Banietemad: The Acousmatic Voice. Screening: The May Lady (1997, 88 min). Suggested reading: Naficy, “Veiled Voice and Veiled Vision in Iranian Cinema: The Evolution of Rakhshan Banietemad’s Films.” (Online Web Resource).

4. Bahman Ghobadi: Ethnic Marginality and Global Politics. Screening: Turtles Can Fly (2004, 98 min). Suggested reading: Farhang Erfani, “Deafening Silence: Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles Can Fly and Marginal Politics” in Iranian Cinema and Philosophy, 157-192.

5. Jafar Panahi: Gender, Class and Masculinity. Screening: Crimson Gold (2003, 90 min). Suggested reading: Dabashi, “Crimson Gold” in Masters, 393-428.

Teaching method(s)

This course will be taught through a combination of short lectures, film screenings, class discussion.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a good understanding of Iranian Cinema in relation to other national cinemas including Hollywood;

• Critically analyze films using some of the key concepts in |Film Studies and film theory;

• Show awareness of the ideological operations within any media text;

• Analyze more critically and creatively any film beyond the context of Iranian Cinema.

Sources

Core Readings

Recommended:

• Dabashi, Hamid. Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, and Future. London: Verso,

• Dabashi, Hamid. Masters & Masterpieces of Iranian Cinema. Washington D.C., Mage Press, 2007.

• Naficy, Hamid. A Social History of Iranian Cinema: Volume 4. Durham: Duke University Press, 2012.

• Tapper, Richard. Ed. The New Iranian Cinema: Politics, Representation, and Identity. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.

• Naficy, Hamid. “Neorealism Iranian Style” in Global Neorealism: The Transnational History of a Film Style. Ed. Saverio Giovacchini and Robert Sklar. Mississippi: The University Press of Mississippi, 2012. 226-239.

Web Sources

http://www.iranchamber.com/cinema/cinema.php

http://www.firouzanfilms.com/ArticlesAndEssays/index.html

http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/kiarostami/

http://sensesofcinema.com/tag/iranian-cinema/

Articles by Jamsheed Akrami

http://www.iranianfilms.net/articles

http://www.iranianfilms.net/Mehrjui.pdf

Women in Iranian cinema:

http://www.iran-bulletin.org/art/CINEMA2.html

Negar Motahedeh on the Web:

http://vimeo.com/7308512

http://asiasociety.org/jafar-panahi-and-women-iran

Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bftit2lMEtM

Vice - Inside Iranian cinema

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mzmqt-HRFE

A clip from Mark Cousins, The Story of Film: Iranian Filmmakers, the “New Wave” of Cinema

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKyW5ZLV5ck

Class Handouts

There will be class handouts on the film studies concepts and theories that we will be referring to in class. There will also be some information on Iranian Cinema distributed in the handouts, including some lecture notes.

Queries

If you have questions regarding the course or enrolment, please contact COL Reception at Paterson's Land by email COL@ed.ac.uk or by phone 0131 650 4400.

Student support

If you have a disability, learning difficulty or health condition which may affect your studies, please let us know by ticking the 'specific support needs' box on your course application form. This will allow us to make appropriate adjustments in advance and in accordance with your rights under the Equality Act 2010. For more information please visit the Student Support section of our website.