Iranian Cinema
- Course Code:
- 15PMSH010
- Unit value:
- 0.5
- Year of study:
- Year 1 or Year 2
Since the Islamic Revolution of 1978-9 the 'new Iranian cinema' has emerged as a thriving and exciting 'world cinema'. The objective of the course is to introduce students to this cinema and to relate it to its historical, political, economic, social, cultural, literary and artistic contexts.
Films by most of the major directors, including Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Bahram Beyzaíi, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and many others, will be reviewed and contextualized. Themes to be discussed will include the roles (and depictions) of women, children and rural and tribal society, theoretical issues concerning representation and realism, documentary, fiction and propaganda. There will be framing discussions of pre-revolutionary cinema, of images of Iran in foreign films, of the development of other media (small and large), and of other themes in contemporary Iranian culture and society.
