Five Components of Iranian Cinema's Image of Iranian Society

At the 37th Fajr Film Festival (2019), the number of films that were formally noteworthy was greater than in previous festivals, and at least half of the feature films (Midday Adventure 2: Trace of Blood, The Night the Moon Was Full, Takhti, Castle of Dreams, The Redskin, Just 6.5, The Jester, Jan Dar, African Violet, Gold, Suddenly a Tree, Darkhoongah, The Oath, My Second Year in College, Orange Days, and 23 People), regardless of content, were considered relatively well-crafted films by the standards of Iranian cinema, indicating that the number of professional and capable young filmmakers and crew members in Iran is on the rise. The effective, numerous, and successful presence of promising young directors born in the 1980s and 1990s (Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Nima Javid, Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian, Saeed Roustayi, Hossein Amiri Domari, Pedram Amiri, Siavash Asadi, and Arash Lahooti) also signifies a kind of metamorphosis in cinema and the ascendancy of a new generation over Iranian cinema, who, with novel subjects and audacity in new experiments and cinematic ventures, herald a different and new era in Iranian cinema. In three feature films this year, the phrase "good genes" was used, but two weak films at the festival (Reverse by Poulad Kimiayi and Tsunami by Milad Sadr-Ameli) were admitted to the festival due to the good genes of cinema's privileged sons. If the festival jury's votes were made "transparent," the likelihood of such weak films entering the festival would decrease. However, evaluating form and technique in the festival's films is not the subject of this note.

The visible advancement of "technique" and "craft" in Iranian cinema has not necessarily been accompanied by novel content, social depth, and greater richness. One of my motivations for watching all 30 feature films of the Fajr Festival (including bad and weak films like Blade and Termeh, Gold Porter, Ashoftegi, The Main Idea, Reverse, Watching This Film Is a Crime, and Snake Venom) was to gain an overall picture of "Iranian cinema's image of Iranian society in 2019." Of course, cinema is not merely a "mirror of society"; it can also construct dreams, "intervene" to "change" reality, and be a medium and tool for the "expression" of the filmmaker's personal emotions and ideas. But given the predominance of "social realist cinema" at this year's festival, one can ask: How has Iranian society been represented in this year's cinema? In answer to this question, and with a general look at all 30 films, disregarding their technical and formal aspects, it seems to me that five main axes and components stand out in this year's cinematic image of Iranian society, which I will address in the utmost brevity below. In this piece, I do not "judge" how close to reality and defensible this image is; I merely "describe" the dominant image of Iranian society in Iranian cinema in 2019:

1. Contaminated Selfish Individualism

In most of this year's films, Iranians are depicted as "contaminated selfish individualists" who seek "individual" solutions for "social" problems and issues, are concerned above all with their "private good" and personal interests, pay little attention to the "public sphere" and the "common good," are not "altruistic," and under the pressure of problems and structures, to maximize their share of wealth, power, status, and lust, have no qualms about breaking the law and engaging in immoral and contaminating behavior. In some films, all the main characters (like The Main Idea) or most of them (like Ashoftegi, The Man Without a Shadow, Tsunami, and Snake Venom) are swindling the other characters in the story and have a complex for "luxury cars," travel, and conspicuous, ostentatious consumption with dirty money. Even in the rare cases where a main character is portrayed as an honest, law-abiding, moral, trustworthy, and altruistic citizen, they often either become a victim of society (like Takhti, who becomes disillusioned and commits suicide, and Leila Hatami in The Man Who Had No Shadow, who is killed) or ultimately become contaminated by corruption and stolen/usurious/embezzled/hoarded money (like Gold, Orange Days, and Darkhoongah). The limited images of altruism, honesty, self-sacrifice, and striving to expand the "common good" (like Takhti, 23 People, and Midday Adventure 2: Trace of Blood) also occurred in the past and are almost absent from Iranian cinema's image of today. The hidden advice of many of this year's films, in the words of one of the characters in Tsunami, was: "Be a happy jerk, instead of a miserable hero."

2. Nostalgia for the Past

At this year's Fajr Festival, there was not a single film about the "future," as if our filmmakers have become incapable of even imagining the future, and the pleasant images of Iran depicted with eye-catching frames and delightful elements are often not in the present or future but in the "past." Iran's heroes in this year's cinema are also all in the past, not in the present or future. In the well-crafted film "The Redskin," in the words of its cinematographer, warm filters are used to "give a better image of our glorious past(!)," and the image presented of a prison in the Pahlavi era and its dutiful warden and lovable social worker is far better than the image of the dark, gloomy prison of the 1980s in the film "Suddenly a Tree," the contemporary prison in "Just 6.5," and even the cold, gray images of today's Tehran in this year's social realist cinema. In films like "Suddenly a Tree," a retouched, dreamlike image of Pahlavi-era Iran and a dark image of post-revolution Iran are constructed, and if there is any hope for the future, it is a kind of nostalgic hope (and not a progressive hope) for reviving that past by the next generation and bringing its "photographs" to life. In this year's cinema, the chic settings, colorful and attractive mise-en-scènes, lovable characters, and references to "positive," "warm," and "happy" spaces and elements in the dialogues are mostly related to pre-revolution Iran.

3. The Idealized West

In addition to the "past," the urban and public spaces that are depicted as "ideal" and "desirable" are often set in the "West," especially "Spain." The image of Spain presented in films like "A Man without a Shadow" is so "idealized" that it resembles advertisements for the country's tourism agencies. In "The Main Idea," Spain is also depicted as a place where, unlike Iran, the law punishes and catches the fraudster, and the trustworthiness of others is the rule, not the exception as it is in Iran. In "Gold," the story's central young man is forced to flee the conditions the previous generation created for him in Iran, taking his "dollars" and "gold" to the "West." The ideal world in "Blade and Termeh" is also the West. In "Tsunami," the athletic heroes who seek refuge in Denmark are the redeemed ones of the story, and the Afghan athlete is also ultimately forced to emigrate from Iran to the West. In "Suddenly a Tree," besides the people trying to escape across the land border, the interrogator and judicial officer are ultimately fleeing across the sea border as well. In contrast, the space of social life in contemporary Iran is generally depicted as so dark and bitter that, in the words of the weak film "Gold Carrier" (which I hope no worker sees), even if you are willing to search for your livelihood in "excrement" to escape misery, you will not succeed, or if, like some of the young people in the film "Gold," you stay in Iran, you must resign yourself to a business whose foundations are "dirty money."

4. Retribution and Revenge

This year, a significant number of films (Jamshidieh, Just 6.5, The Oath, The Living, Yalda, Chaos, and The Redskin) were about retribution and execution, and in all the festival's films except for three exceptions, "physical violence" was a recurring element, sometimes depicted in an excessively explicit manner, like the first sequence of the film "A Man without a Shadow." In most of these films, the institution of the prison plays no preventive role against crime; the law itself and its enforcement are depicted as flawed, and the judicial system is extraordinarily inefficient in administering justice. This level of retribution, execution, violence, and prison in the films, and this number of anti-execution/retribution films, is unprecedented in all the years of the Fajr Festival.

5. More Social Freedoms

Political freedoms were not a central theme in any of the films at this year's festival, but in most films, elements of social freedoms, freer social and sexual spaces and relationships were depicted, and in this regard, there were differences compared to the festivals of previous years. An empathetic and positive image of ordinary boyfriend-girlfriend relationships (for example in Gold, Tsunami, My Second Year in College, and Suddenly, a Tree), a positive image of keeping a child born out of wedlock (Gold), an empathetic portrayal of love triangles (for example in African Violet, My Second Year in College, and Tigh o Termeh), the sound of women singing solo (for example in My Second Year in College), women smoking, the recreational use of marijuana and other drugs, erotic language and visual references (for example in Zahr-e Mar), dancing at mixed-gender parties (for example in Takhti and A Man without a Shadow), alcoholic beverages, bars, and drunkenness (for example in The Main Idea, Ashoftegi, Zahr-e Mar, and Takhti), and women without hijab outside Iran or wearing wigs inside Iran (in most films) were among the recurring elements of social life in this year's cinema. Relationships and spaces that are not shown on Iranian state television occupied a larger portion of the films in this year's cinema compared to previous years, which is partly due to cinema's mirroring aspect and a reflection of social developments in Iran.

The Molting of Iranian Cinema

This year's cinema constructs an image of Iran where most of its citizens are selfish individualists who, in order to live, become tainted by corruption, dirty money, law-breaking, betrayal, and violence; they have a bitter and dark image of today; their heroes become victims of society; they hold an idealized image of the pre-revolution past and the West; they are eager for more social freedoms; they gradually choose a freer lifestyle; they have no bright future or horizon; they do not trust, and if they do, they regret it; they are captive to accumulated social harms, including addiction; their families are often dysfunctional and lack healthy, loyal, and flourishing relationships. In this cinema, the future, a bright horizon, peace, altruism, concern for the "common good," moral and economic health, hope, dreams, beauty, deep political critique and horizon-opening political action, psychological security, love with a happy ending, national and group belonging, a hero with a happy ending, kindness, healthy relationships and a warm family, trust, role models, individual, collective, and national achievements, political and civic participation, a successful independent woman (who is neither a femme fatale nor weak or merely a victim and alone), nature, meaning, ideals, sources of joy, happiness, and a balanced, realistic image of Iranian society are rare. In the fortieth year of the revolution, Iranian cinema is molting in terms of form and influential directors, but will it also introduce a new design in the richness of its content and the type and depth of its gaze upon the past, present, and future of Iranian society, and in avoiding the repetition of themes? I do not know.

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Five Components of Iranian Cinema's Image of Iranian Society

Author: Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour

Published in Iran Newspaper - 2019/02/13

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