Drawing on the theoretical framework of the narrative functions of silence and employing a discourse-analytic and cognitive perspective, this study examines the transformation of Dāriyūsh Mihrjūʾī’s poetic vision in two of his landmark works, Derakht-i Golābī (1997) and ʿAzīz-i dūst gum shudah ast (1998). Produced within a short interval, these films represent a decisive stage in the director’s career, demonstrating how Mihrjūʾī, through the creative deployment of various forms of silence, elevates cinematic storytelling into a poetic and interpretive domain.

Within this discursive approach, silence is not understood as the mere absence of speech but as a “meaningful absence” that, by leaving a trace within the text, enables the activation of hidden meanings, inferential processes, and the filling of semantic gaps by the audience. Drawing on Sadeqī’s typology (2009), this study distinguishes structural, semantic, and implicational forms of silence in cinematic narrative, each contributing differently to audience engagement and meaning-making.

In Derakht-i Golābī, structural silence (textual or visual gaps) and semantic silence (signifier substitution) generate fragmented, metaphorical, and multilayered spaces that direct the narrative toward poetization and aesthetic suspension. Meanwhile, implicational and presuppositional silences engage viewers’ cognitive schemas, prompting inferential reconstruction and active co-creation of the story-world. This type of silence, rather than serving only the creation of poetic imagery, functions cognitively and interpretively, allowing audiences to mentally complete narrative gaps and reinterpret the story-world.

This silence-oriented model reaches its culmination in ʿAzīz-i dūst gum shudah ast, where the narrative structure extends into surrealistic and metafictional realms, deliberately blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination. Set on Kish Island, the story revolves around a group of filmmakers who re-enact the love between a cousin and his beloved. Through structural, semantic, and implicational silences, the film constructs situations that are simultaneously familiar and estranged. Implication- and presupposition-based silences subvert conventional cognitive schemas, allowing surreal elements and narrative gaps to generate interpretive novelty. The mythical return of the cousin and the appearance of magical beings function as signs of both absence and presence, opening up diverse interpretive horizons for the audience.

Findings of this analysis reveal that the interplay between narrative silence and Mihrjūʾī’s aesthetics of poetic cinema not only intensifies the audience’s perceptual and emotional experience but also establishes a cognitive mechanism for meaning-making, whereby absence itself becomes one of the primary sources of cinematic poetics.