12. Grace Under Pressure:
Iranian Cinema
Book
Hamid Dabashi, Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past Present and Future, Verso (2001), ISBN: 1859843328.
Movies
TBA
Program Description
In recent years, post-revolutionary Iran has become a wellspring of movies that overflow with sensual imagery, complex humanitarian issues and cannily veiled political allegory. Filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi and Majid Majidi are laying claim to the kind of cinematic poetry that used to be associated only with European and Japanese directors, such as Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa and Francois Truffaut.
Following the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the inauguration of the Islamic Republic, many predicted that new restrictions would kill off Iran’s cinema. But Iranian film has survived, undergoing remarkable transformations in parallel with the wider changes in Iranian culture and society. Today, Iranian cinema is recognized as one of the most innovative and exciting in the world, and films from Iranian directors are being screened to increasing acclaim
at international festivals.
Discussion Leader
Mandana Vahabi is a nurse, epidemiologist and researcher.
She immigrated to Canada two years after the Iranian Islamic revolution. Mandana is intrigued by the role Iranian cinema plays in bringing the complex social, cultural and political aspects of Iranian life, particularly the aspirations of women, into the global arena.
