Ethnographic filmmaking—defined as making films that represent one culture to another or to itself—emerged in Iran in the 1960s, driven by many factors, such as rapid modernization and the resulting population displacements and psychic and…

Introduction In this entry, I trace the trajectory of Bahrām Bayzā’ī’s creative impulse and examine his oeuvre to offer an analytical overview of his aesthetic and thematic concerns and innovations. Before embarking on my chronological…

Before the narrative even begins, Rakhshān Banī-i‛timād’s Nargis (Nargess) of 1992 directly engages the theme of love. As the film opens accompanied by the melodic score, a close-up of a conventional bride and groom figurine…

Asghar Farhādī was born in 1972 in Humāyūnshahr, also known as Sidah (now called Khumaynīshahr), on the outskirts of Isfahan. He gravitated towards theater and film at an early age despite having no obvious family…

Introduction  Iranian cinema entered the European film festival scene in the 1960s. The first Iranian film to screen at Cannes was Mostafa Farzaneh’s…

This article is about an emergent form of cinema in whose production and propagation most of us have participated in one way or another.  I will concentrate on its manifestation in Iran around the political…

Director: Hūshang Kāvūsī Year of Release: 1956 Screenplay: Hūshang Kāvūsī Source Material: Phantom Lady, a novel by Cornell Woolrich (1942) Music: Vārtān Āzārīyān Cinematography: Mahdi Amīr Qāsim Cast: Nāsir Malik-Mutī‛ī, Muhsin Mahdavī, Sūzān, Mahīn Mu‛āvinzādah,…

To research silent cinema in Iran is to reconsider what aspects of cinema history, broadly conceived, are worth showcasing. Does one seek out firsts: the first inventions, initial contact with the moving image, the opening…

Introduction Non-fiction, sponsored, institutional, and children’s films are integral to the history of Iranian cinema. Iran, like other developing economies in the post-World War II order, was eager to invest in documentary film as a…

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) is the debut feature of Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour. Amirpour, whose family left Iran following the Revolution, was living in California at the time of filming…

Iranian pre-revolutionary cinema has been characterized by different cinematic trends. While distinct in their modes of production, cinematic grammar, means of circulation, and reception, these cinematic trends were connected and overlapping. Starting in the late…

Mahdī (Rūsī Khan) Ivanov was born in Tehran on 15 October 1875 of Russian Tatar and British parentage, although historians have provided contradictory accounts of his parents’ nationality.1Some scholars have claimed that his father was…

Introduction This article focuses on the life and professional career of Farrukh Ghaffārī (1922-2006), an outstanding cinematic and cultural figure in Iran. By covering various aspects of Ghaffārī’s life, including his early years and diverse…

Figure 1: A still from the film Deep Breath (Nafas-i ‛Amīq, 2003) Parvīz Shahbāzī, Accessed via https://www.imvbox.com/en/movies/deep-breath-nafase-amigh (00:03:34) Introduction To demonstrate the inadequacy of the popular category “postrevolutionary Iranian cinema,” Blake Atwood introduced the term…

Introduction In Khirs nīst (translated into English as No Bear [2022]), the acclaimed filmmaker Ja‛far Panāhī, banned from making films stands in a somber mood on the Iranian side of the border separating the country…

Introduction Despite having ended nearly 40 years ago, the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) still resonates today, at the same time that some of the basic facts of the conflict are still debated. In no way forgotten,…

Introduction Cities and urban spaces have always provided a leading geographical platform for cinematic narratives. Iranian cities are no exception. The city of Tehran, its neighborhoods, monuments, natural and artificial features, public places, and even…

… the shadow (sayah) has an importance in the non-material world (ghayr-i madi)… etymologically, the shadow (sayah) has the meaning of the double (ham-zad), and shadow-stricken (sayah zadah), and Jinn-stricken or possessed by jinn (jinn…

Iranian women’s cinema is a theater of activism, audacity, and determination and women have played numerous important roles in cinematic production since its coming to Iran at the beginning of the twentieth century. However, after…

The turbulent events that unfolded during the Green Movement in Iran—ignited by the disputed results of the 2009 presidential elections—had a lasting impact on the country’s social and political fabric. The middle class, closely associated…

Introduction This article examines the early cinematographic works of ‛Abbās Kīyārustamī (1940-2016), spotlighting the intricate nexus between childhood, education, and spatial dynamics in the context of 1970s pre-revolutionary Iran. Through a detailed analysis of three…

Introduction In a nation where poetry permeates common parlance, is used to justify arguments, offer guidance, honor patrons, condemn adversaries, and confront authority, its influence naturally extends to various art forms, including cinema. The evidence…

Drawn out by Rakhshan Banietemad in 1985, the role of Tuba, the filmmaker’s most iconic character, was initially reserved for Golab Adineh to perform in Under the Skin of the City (2001). As a result…

Leading Iranian filmmakers in both pre- and post-revolutionary stages have been practitioners of reality depiction, the depiction of social realities under silencing restrictions and censorships, through varying degrees of cinematic realism. The majority of Iranian…

Introduction This article focuses on the changes in the cinematic representation of home and how women are represented at home and in relation to home before, during, and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Research findings…