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TTHISHIS ISSUEISSUE: IIRANIANRANIAN CINEMACINEMA ● IIndianndian camera,camera, IranianIranian heartheart ● TThehe lliteraryiterary andand dramaticdramatic rootsroots ofof thethe IranianIranian NewNew WaveWave ● DDystopicystopic TehranTehran inin ‘Film-Farsi’‘Film-Farsi’ popularpopular ccinemainema ● PParvizarviz SSayyad:ayyad: ssocio-politicalocio-political commentatorcommentator dresseddressed asas villagevillage foolfool ● TThehe nnoiroir wworldorld ooff MMasudasud KimiaiKimiai ● TThehe resurgenceresurgence ofof IranianIranian ‘Sacred‘Sacred Defence’Defence’ CinemaCinema ● AAsgharsghar Farhadi’sFarhadi’s ccinemainema ● NNewew diasporicdiasporic visionsvisions ofof IranIran ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews andand eventsevents inin LondonLondon

Sam Beklik, The Eye. Specially designed for the 'Iranian About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) Cinema' issue of The Middle East in London www.sambeklik.com Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between Volume 15 – Number 2 individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. February–March 2019 With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also Editorial Board has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Dr Orkideh Behrouzan SOAS it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its Dr Hadi Enayat programme of activities. AKU LMEI is a Registered Charity in the UK wholly owned by SOAS, University of London (Charity Ms Narguess Farzad SOAS Registration Number: 1103017). Mrs Nevsal Hughes Association of European Journalists Professor George Joff é Mission Statement: Cambridge University Dr Ceyda Karamursel SOAS Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle Mrs Margaret Obank East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Banipal Publishing those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in Ms Janet Rady London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the Janet Rady Fine Art Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is Mr Barnaby Rogerson at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education Dr Sarah Stewart SOAS and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today. Dr Shelagh Weir Independent Researcher Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College LMEI Staff : SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: Editor Megan Wang Director Dr Hassan Hakimian To subscribe to Th e Middle East in London, please visit: Listings Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/affi liation/ or contact the Vincenzo Paci Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci LMEI offi ce. Designer Administrative Assistant Aki Elborzi Shahla Geramipour Letters to the Editor:

Th e Middle East in London is published fi ve times a year by the London Middle Please send your letters to the editor at East Institute at SOAS Disclaimer: the LMEI address provided (see left panel) Publisher and or email [email protected] Editorial Offi ce Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal Th e London Middle East Institute SOAS views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their University of London MBI Al Jaber Building, organisations nor those of the LMEI and the MEL's 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA Editorial Board. Although all advertising in the magazine is carefully vetted prior to publication, the T: +44 (0)20 7898 4330 LMEI does not accept responsibility for the accuracy E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ of claims made by advertisers. ISSN 1743-7598 Contents

4 17 EDITORIAL Asghar Farhadi’s cinema: a family torn apart 5 Asal Bagheri LMEI Board of Trustees INSIGHT Indian camera, Iranian heart 19 Baroness Valerie Amos (Chair) Director, SOAS Ranjita Ganesan Imagining homeland from a Dr Orkideh Behrouzan, SOAS distance: new diasporic visions Professor Stephen Hopgood, SOAS 7 of Dr Lina Khatib, Chatham House IRANIAN CINEMA Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad Dr Dina Matar, SOAS Th e literary and dramatic roots Dr Hanan Morsy African Development Bank of the Iranian New Wave REVIEWS Professor Scott Redford, SOAS Saeed Talajooy Mr James Watt, CBRL 21 9 ‘Poets of Life’ & ‘Puzzleys’, part Cinema of urban crisis: of the Karestan series dystopic Tehran in ‘Film Farsi’ Taraneh Dadar popular cinema LMEI Advisory Council Golbarg Rekabtalaei 22

Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) BOOKS IN BRIEF Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem 11 H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait Parviz Sayyad: socio-political 24 Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani commentator dressed as IN MEMORIAM Arab International Women’s Forum village fool Roger Owen (1935-2018) Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa President, University College of Bahrain Roya Arab Sami Zubaida Professor Tony Allan King’s College and SOAS Dr Alanoud Alsharekh 13 25 Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS Th e noir world of Masud EVENTS IN LONDON Mr Farad Azima NetScientifi c Plc Kimiai Dr Noel Brehony MENAS Associates Ltd. Parviz Jahed Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna British Egyptian Society 15 HE Mr Rami Mortada Ambassador, Embassy of Lebanon : the resurgence of Iranian ‘Sacred Defence’ Cinema Kaveh Abbasian

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL

DDearear RReadereader

Photograph taken on 24 November 2018 at SOAS’s Centre for screening of Karestan documentaries. From left to right: Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad, Roya Arab, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Shirin Barghnavard and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb

Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad, SOAS & Roya Arab, City, University of London

ranian cinema’s prominence at connections and common cultural and heroism in Kimiai’s homosocial fi lms. international fi lm festivals over the last interests between early Iranian and Indian Kaveh Abbasian discusses the aesthetic Ithree decades has raised interest and fi lmmaking traditions. aspirations of the so-called ‘Sacred questions in equal measure. Th e success Saeed Talajooy provides an overview of Defence’ fi lms, which have been a tool has been paradoxical on many levels, not the aesthetics and thematic inspirations for propagating the Islamic Republic’s least because the production of such a that provided for Iranian ideology since their inception. high volume of quality fi lms has taken ‘new wave’ fi lmmakers before the 1979 Asal Bagheri examines Asghar Farhadi’s place under a strong ideological state that Revolution. latest fi lm Everybody Knows (2018) and requires overcoming a myriad of religio- Golbarg Rekabtalaei takes a new lens to highlights the fi lmmaker’s use of recurring political restrictions. the denigrated ‘Film Farsi’ – mainstream themes and narrative techniques even Th e international renown and academic cinema before the Revolution – which, beyond the borders of Iran. interest in festival fi lms has come at the until recently, has attracted little academic Mirroring Ganesan’s focus on expense of research and viewing of the interest. She shows how Film Farsi engaged fi lms made by Iranians abroad, Saeed larger body of Iranian cinematic output with socio-cultural anxieties in urban life Zeydabadi-Nejad brings the issue full from lesser known , as well as under the Pahlavis. circle by exploring recent trends among mainstream and diasporic varieties. In Roya Arab reviews the works of diasporic Iranian fi lmmakers of narratives this issue, authors with wide-ranging Parviz Sayyad and asks if the success of set in fi ctionalised Iranian locations. He interests –fi lmmakers, academics and Samad, his iconic comic character, has explores why and how homeland has been critics – assess an assortment of Iranian overshadowed his extensive contribution imagined in these fi lms. fi lmmakers, cinematic and themes. to Iranian cinema as a writer, director, Th e issue is brought to a close with We begin this issue with Ranjita and producer. Taraneh Dadar’s review of the Karestan Ganesan’s exploration of the fi lmmaking Parviz Jahed explores the world of fi lm project, which sheds light on a career of Abdolhossein Sepanta, maker of Persian – specifi cally, the works fascinating series of documentaries (an the fi rst Iranian ‘talkie’ – which was made of Masud Kimiai, the most prolifi c creator infl uential and understudied cinematic in India – with Parsi fi lmmaker Ardeshir of the in Iran. He explores the genre), two of which recently featured at a Irani. Ganesan describes the Zoroastrian recurring themes of criminality, violence Centre for Iranian Studies event at SOAS.

4 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 IINSIGHTNSIGHT

Ranjita Ganesan provides an account of the early collaborative talkies of Abdolhossein Sepanta from 1933 to 1937 IIndianndian ccamera,amera, IIranianranian hhearteart

Golnar (Roohangiz Saminejad) wrings her hands nervously while in the custody of the bandit Gholi Khan. Still taken from Abdolhossein Sepanta’s Lor Girl

very day for some months in 1935, (‘talkies’) in collaboration with a studio passion project. Released in both Iran Abdolhossein Sepanta dutifully in Bombay. Th e fi rst of these had been and India, his fi lms are a fascinating early Emade the dull commute from Dokhtar-e Lor (Lor Girl, 1933), a costume example of co-productions in the East. Bandra to Andheri in Bombay. By this drama featuring gypsies, bandits and His experiences are also indicative of the time the fi nancial capital of India and government offi cials. remarkable diffi culties of making cinema home of Indian cinema were familiar to Th ose daily train journeys in 1935 in those years. Sepanta, a young poet and journalist from marked a departure of sorts, as Sepanta Even if cut short, Sepanta’s time with Tehran who attended theatre school in had just fallen out with his initial Imperial Films was signifi cant. Originally his youth. He had studied and worked collaborator Ardeshir Irani of the having arrived in India in 1927 with a in India for a number of years, taking on Imperial Films Company, the pioneer of desire to understand the Zoroastrian assignments as a writer and translator. Indian talkies. So he was travelling instead history of Iran, he wrote for publications He had also scripted and made three of to the leafy studios of a rival production of the Bombay-based Iran League – an the earliest Persian-language sound fi lms house, which had agreed to back his next organisation that aimed to keep ties alive between Indian Zoroastrians and their old land Iran. Sepanta was introduced to Released in both Iran and India, Abdolhossein Sepanta’s fi lms the prolifi c producer Irani in 1932, who are a fascinating early example of co-productions in the East had just produced an Urdu fi lm Daku ki

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 5 Ladki. ‘Seeing the fi lm, plus the friendship His cinematic contributions are not forgotten; Sepanta is between my employer (Dinshah Irani) and Ardeshir Irani gave me the perfect acknowledged as father of Iranian sound fi lms, his Lor Girl opportunity to interest Ardeshir in is a subject of academic and general interest and the Iranian producing a fi lm in ’ Sepanta is quoted as having written in his in San Francisco is titled Sepanta Awards memoirs. An ambitious Ardeshir Irani (possibly) Lor Girl is the only Sepanta fi lm to Parsi viewers as a special release for the did not need much convincing. He have survived. It featured luminous kadmi New Year holiday. had raced against more established costumes, a two-minute dance sequence, Th e director’s most positive experience competitors to make the fi rst Indian a fl ashback, several songs and gun-battles, was in Bengal, telling the love story Leyli talkie Alam Ara in 1931 – exporting fi lms all contributing to its success. Khuzestan and Majnun (1937) with the East India to Iran would be another feather in his had been recreated in Chembur, then Film Company, which had access to pheta. Episodes from the Persian epic a verdant, far-fl ung part of Bombay. advanced cameras and sound equipment. as well as Islamic fantasy tales When the couple fl ees to India, there Th rough detailed meetings with the from One Th ousand and One Nights were are glimpses of the Gateway of India, Taj studio, he learnt about pre-production. already part of the public imagination Mahal Palace Hotel and Rajabai Clock Vaziri co-starred in this fi lm too, which in Bombay, given their adaptation by Tower. Despite its talkie credentials, was reported by the Times of India the popular Parsi theatre. When motion intertitles were inserted to inform of time to have an ‘Oriental atmosphere’ and pictures emerged, a number of these lapses and plot details. Following the fi lm’s ‘probably the best Persian talkie made in became recurring themes in cinema too; enthusiastic reception – the applause in India or Iran.’ On returning to Iran soon among them Shirin va Farhad and Leili Cinema Mayak was so loud one movie thereaft er, his fi lmmaking hopes suff ered va Majnun. So the two set off making critic felt ‘the fl oor of the theatre tremble’ as distributors tried to purchase the fi lms familiar yet exotic fi lms for both the – Irani handed over direction to Sepanta cheaply, and government support for Iranian and Indian markets. for the next releases, (1934) and cinema was not forthcoming. Instead, he Irani, described by Sepanta as an Shirin va Farhad (1934). resumed journalism and eventually made excellent fi lm editor, off ered him technical By now, the young writer had brought home movies with an 8mm camera. His advice, along with books on script writing in Fakhri Vaziri from Iran, who worked cinematic contributions are not forgotten; and directing. Directed by Irani, Sepanta in an acting school, and gave her a acknowledged as father of Iranian sound wrote and played the lead in Lor Girl. break on screen as Shirin. To meet and fi lms, his Lor Girl is a subject of academic Together, they persuaded Roohangiz convince Vaziri’s parents, he even brought and general interest, and the Iranian Film Saminejad, wife of an Iranian staff driver along his own mother, wife and son. Festival in San Francisco (est. 2007) is at Imperial Films, to take on the female Th e partnership with Irani withered titled Sepanta Awards. lead during a time when few women aft er Sepanta was disappointed with Th e story of Sepanta’s eff orts between were willing to appear on screen. Her his share in the returns; he joined other 1933 and 1937 is, importantly, the story lilting Kermani accent, while playing a Indian studios to direct his next costume of how two cultures enriched each other. Lorestani character, had to be explained dramas. Vaziri accompanied the director It is unfortunate that despite popular in a plot point; nevertheless it appealed to on the humid train commutes to fi lm release in Iran and India, only one of the audiences and some even mimicked her Cheshman-e Siah (Black Eyes) with Shree fi ve fi lms remains available for viewing. lines. Krishna Films, which released it in 1936. Still, as Irani’s Alam Ara appears to be lost As the fi rst ever Persian talkie, Sepanta Based on Nader Shah’s invasion of India, forever, Lor Girl preserves the legacy of felt it should stir patriotism among this fi lm was perhaps Sepanta’s most two important artists and is a thing to be viewers. He conceived of a hero Jafar, a publicised, especially aimed at India’s cherished. government agent investigating bandits who, it is implied, thrived during the Qajar era. His search leads him to a coff ee house where he meets and falls in love with a dancer, Golnar. Golnar is a heroine ahead of her time: she thwarts unwanted advances of men, fl irts proactively with Jafar and pulls off daring escapes and rescues. Th e two set off together to fi nd the chief bandit Gholi Khan’s hideout and succeed in killing him. Fearing for their lives, they sail to Bombay port Ranjita Ganesan is a Mumbai-based and later, having learnt of a secure and journalist who writes on subjects of culture prosperous Iran under Pahlavi rule, and the arts for the Indian daily Business return to Iran. Th e fi lm’s alternative title Standard and has contributed to outlets ‘Iran of yesterday and Iran of today’ including Reuters and Hindustan Times. speaks directly to its underlying message She recently completed the MA in Iranian of advancement under Reza Shah. Studies at SOAS

6 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 IIRANIANRANIAN CCINEMAINEMA By combining elements from Iranian drama and Persian literature, the New Wave marked a turning point in Iranian cinema. Saeed Talajooy explains TThehe lliteraryiterary aandnd ddramaticramatic rrootsoots ooff tthehe IIranianranian NNewew WWaveave

uring the last three decades, Persian plays (1873-1874) transcended the ‘new wave’ fi lms of Iranian these indigenous forms and heralded Dcinema, particularly the the cultural products of the following and psychosocial fi lms, decades. have found a degree of visibility across Due to religious prohibitions, the the globe and won awards for their adoption of modern theatre and drama aesthetic qualities and thematic probing as a form of artistic expression was not into contemporary human life. Films straightforward. Nevertheless, hybrid by , , forms evolved with the adoption of , or -style drama, particularly from Asghar Farhadi speak with a fi lmic the 1910s onward, and continued to be language understandable to people of important forms of artistic expression and diff erent cultures, but the specifi cs of socio-political engagement in Iran. From their expression and subtle innuendoes the 1930s, theatre and fi ction shared their are rooted in a rich tradition of Persian functions as spaces for the production of literary, dramatic and visual arts. modern identities with radio, cinema and Th is article will explore the roots of later television, but Persian literature and the artistic expansion of Iranian cinema drama continued to function as major in the 1960s, while highlighting the bastions of experimentation. contributions of Iranian drama and Cinema, arrived in Iran in 1900 as Persian literature. a royal hobby due to Mozaff areddin Beginning in the early 1850s, drama was Shah’s (r. 1896-1906) fascination with the very fi rst Iranian creative form which the idea of the recorded image. While replaced the image of mythical humanity it proved to be very attractive to the Film poster advertising The Cow, directed by Dariush Mehrjui with depictions of more realistic fi ctional public, it was highly controversial to the characters engaged with topical, everyday retrogressive forces that hid behind their problems. Traditionally, folktales were fake idea of an unchanging tradition. suff ered disruptions: Mohamad Ali Shah adapted for puppet and taqlid comedies Th e fi rst documentaries of the period (r. 1906-1909), for instance, did not allow or even ta’ziyeh passion plays to comment either show the old king in his everyday Mirza Ebrahim Khan Akkasbashi (1874- on secular subjects, but the level of socio- activities or old Tehran. But, as with 1915), the fi rst Iranian cameraman, to political consciousness in Akhundzadeh’s many other markers of modernity, the use the royal camera and the chaos of the Azari plays (1850-1856) and Tabrizi’s Iranian experience of cinematography confl icts that followed the Constitutional Revolution made such ‘luxurious activities’ impossible. Th e next time Th e foremost infl uential fi gure in this move towards the Tehran was fi lmed was two decades later new wave was , a prominent Iranian in 1924, when the fi rst Pahlavi King, Reza Shah (1925-1941), had already begun short-story writer. His documentaries revealed a powerful, implementing his plans for authoritative poetic vision with a high degree of socio-political, historical modernity. Th e history-proper of Iranian cinema, and cultural consciousness, which had until then been therefore, begins with the Pahlavi era. only observed in Persian drama and literature Th e fi rst feature fi lms of the period

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 7 were created by individuals who were Th e best fi lms of the New Wave in the 1970s combined the motivated by artistic and entrepreneurial aspirations, such as Abdolhossein aesthetics and the major themes of Persian literature and drama Septanta. Aft er a period of decline with fi lmic elements from various cultures, particularly French between 1936 and 1954, a new Iranian cinema evolved with the initiative of New Wave, Italian and Japanese art-house cinema Esmail Koushan (1917-1981). It was characterised by a commercial spirit 1964). Th e fi lm was a creative adaptation of an individual and, by extension, a that made Iranian cinema economically of the story of ‘the tailor, the hunchback, nation. Th anks to Sae’di’s experience as a independent but had negative impacts the Jew, the advisor and the Christian’ psychiatrist-turned-writer, the story and on its artistic aspirations. Due to its from One Th ousand and One Nights. It the fi lm became an artistic commentary preoccupation with seemingly non- is a story about honesty and justice and on the pitfalls of Iran’s encounter with political aspects of life, it also loosened emphasises that true justice does not modernity and the impossibility of the early links between Iranian cinema discriminate against individuals due to emancipation when people are crushed and the more progressive forms of artistic their religious or class backgrounds. Th e under the burden of ignorance. Th e production in Iran. From the late 1950s, fi lm adds a number of noir elements to of the fi lm were all theatre actors who had however, the momentum returned, turn the narrative into a set worked with Sa’edi for about a decade. producing the fi rst prototype of Iranian in a contemporary dystopia – the Tehran Sa’edi went on to work with Naser Taqvaei New Wave. of the early 1960s – in which people shun (1941-) in Aramesh dar Hozour Digaran One of the most infl uential fi gures in their responsibilities and endanger others (Tranquillity in Presence of Others, 1971) this move towards the new wave was without considering the consequences of and once more with Mehrjui in Dayereh- Ebrahim Golestan (1922-), a prominent their actions. ye Mina (Th e Cycle, 1975), which were Iranian short-story writer, who began Th e most important fi lms of the both among the best fi lms of the early making documentary fi lms in the 1950s. 1960s, Mowlapour’s realist Showhar-e years of the Iranian New Wave. Th ese documentaries – commissioned Ahu Khanom (Ahu’s Husband, 1968) To conclude, the Iranian New Wave by British Petroleum – exceeded and Mehrjui’s Gav (Th e Cow) shared the was the child of Iranian drama and expectations and from 1960 onward same literary and dramatic roots, but literature; its most celebrated works were revealed a powerful, poetic vision with a what made the latter the most celebrated produced by fi lmmakers who worked high degree of socio-political, historical fi lm of the early years of the Iranian New with novelists/dramatists or themselves and cultural consciousness, which had Wave was primarily the cooperation of an had literary/dramatic backgrounds. until then been only observed in Persian early career fi lmmaker, Dariush Mehrjui Th is is also refl ected in the best fi lms drama and literature. Th is poetic vision, (1939), and a young, yet fully-established of the New Wave in the 1970s, which which proved instrumental in the novelist and playwright, Gholamhossein were either adaptations or were made later development of the Iranian New Sae’di (1936-85). Sae’di’s episodic novel by well-established Iranian dramatists Wave, was not the product of Golestan’s Azadaran-e Bayal (Th e Mourners of Bayal, such as Bahram Beyzai (1938-) and Arbi individual creativity but the child of his 1964) – which is made of a series of Hovhannisyan (1943-) who became long-standing romantic involvement interrelated stories about the degeneration fi lmmakers in the early 1970s. Th ese with Forough Farrokhzad (1934-67), the of village life in Iran – is one of the fi lms created a tradition for the Iranian prominent female Iranian poet of the masterpieces of psychosocial realist- New Wave by combining the aesthetics 1950s and 1960s. Forough’s poetic vision surrealist literature in Iran, and the script and the major themes of Persian literature and Golestan’s literary and fi lmmaking that Sae’di himself wrote for the fi lm was and drama with fi lmic elements from skills reshaped their creative output a unique piece which echoed his concern various cultures, particularly French New in ways that set the stage for a new with the Kafk aesque metamorphosis Wave, and Japanese momentum in Iranian cinema, which art-house cinema. By 1975 the Iranian foreshadowed the documentary and New Wave had reached a level of maturity feature tendencies of the Iranian New that allowed it to become an independent Wave in the following decades. Forough’s form refl ecting the many sides of Iranian documentary fi lm, Khaneh Siah Ast (Th e creativity, and aft er the 1979 Revolution it House is Black, 1963) and Golestan’s fi rst began to evolve in diff erent directions. feature fi lm, Khesht va Ayenh (Mudbrick and Mirror, 1965) focus on topics such as gender relations, the margins of society, the meaning of life, the importance of belonging and the juxtaposition of the preoccupations of diff erent classes and set the stage for many New Wave fi lms that Saeed Talajooy is lecturer in Persian at the followed. University of St Andrews. His research is Th e same literary origins can be seen in focussed on the refl ections of the changing another prototype of Iranian New Wave, patterns of the modalities of Iranian Jalal-e Moqaddam and Farrokh Ghaff ari’s identity in Persian literature and Iranian Shab-e Quzi (Th e Night of the Hunchback, drama and cinema

8 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 IIRANIANRANIAN CCINEMAINEMA

Golbarg Rekabtalaei on how popular Iranian fi lms from the 1950s to the 1970s reveal the attitudes and anxieties of the times CCinemainema ooff uurbanrban ccrisis:risis: ddystopicystopic TTehranehran iinn ‘‘FilmFilm FFarsi’arsi’ ppopularopular ccinemainema

Still from Storm in Our City, directed by Samuel Khachikian

howing scenes of ‘murder, crime, gained little scholarly attention. While by attending to urban anxieties arising betrayal… grand theft s, street grudgingly regarded as part and parcel of from modernisation. Sshootings, and horrifying police a , socio-cultural critics Depicting the city and its disintegration chases in Tehran’, the anonymous author did not view Film Farsi as an artistic form in the form of an urban crisis became the of a 1968 article in Ferdowsi magazine due to its ‘unrealistic’ mediation and means through which this industry fl irted claimed popular cinema, derogatively understanding of the world. A closer look with social and political criticism, thereby referred to as ‘Film Farsi’, had made a at popular fi lms from the 1950s to the off ering dystopic national imaginations monster out of Tehran, similar to the 1970s – against the backdrop of national that were in contradiction to the national city of ‘Chicago during its gangster era.’ socio-political conditions – however, image of a modernising Iran propagated Commonly denigrated as cheap, vulgar reveals something of the social attitudes by the Pahlavi government. Th e fi lms and immoral productions and imitative of the time. Film Farsi engaged with the conjured a dark representation of the copies of Hollywood, Indian and Egyptian real, in so far as it engaged with the social. terrifying world of the present to alert popular cinemas, the pre-revolutionary One of the ways through which popular viewers to the dangers that the future Iranian popular fi lm industry has cinema tackled extant social concerns was could hold. Taking this temporal shift into account then, dystopic fi ctional fi lms of post-WWII cinema worked as Th e Film Farsi industry off ered dystopic national imaginations harbingers of a horrid future. Around the mid-20th century, the legacy of war, that were in contradiction to the national image of a post-war occupation, socio-political modernising Iran propagated by the Pahlavi government confl icts and the 1953 coup gave rise to

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 9 Th e dark representations of the city worked as a form of urban neorealism and fi lms was not to the liking of critics. criticism that embraced and rejected modernity at the same time Th e intelligentsia and fi lm critics such as Hushang Kavusi rebuked popular the general notion that the moral stability Mehdi Raees Firooz’s Th e Wild Angel fi lms in favour of global arthouse and of Iranian society was disappearing. (1959) portrayed the struggles of a socially-committed fi lms which were Cinema was complicit in this socio- single, unemployed young woman in compatible with the intellectual climate cultural disintegration. Materialism a metropolis that failed to off er job from the 1950s to the 1970s. Because of and consumerism, promoted through opportunities to young women. In the their concern with the everyday, however, fi lm, theatres and their surrounding fi lm, images showing the protagonist’s popular fi lms too engaged social anxieties image culture, were responsible for the anxiety as she goes from offi ce to offi ce and national debates of the time, albeit in weakening of ‘the Iranian psyche.’ With looking for a job, juxtaposed with images cheerful narratives with happy endings. the overpopulation of cities – due, in part, of modern, soulless and somewhat Attending to the city became one of the to a large infl ux of people from rural areas identical buildings, speak volumes about ways through which Film Farsi tackled – and insuffi cient urban infrastructure the atomising forces of modern life in a pre-revolutionary social distress. Th e dark and facilities, new social and cultural rapidly changing society. Saʻid Nayvandi’s representations of the city worked as a problems arose in urban centres that Eve’s Daughters (1961) attended to issues form of urban criticism that embraced stemmed from the incompatibility of overpopulation in Tehran and the and rejected modernity at the same time. of rural and urban social norms. proliferation of overpriced and over- In the liminal space of its fi lms, Film Th ese social anxieties associated with crammed apartment buildings. Opening Farsi imagined and unimagined the real, Iranian modernity and rapid national with panoramic shots of Tehran, the providing a multiplicity of realities that modernisation became central to many narrator describes how ‘large squares, subverted the national image of progress Film-Farsi productions. In fact, the city of wide streets, and modern buildings’ lure that the Pahlavi state promoted, revealed Tehran became the subject and setting of villagers into the city on a daily basis, something of the temperament of society many popular fi lms. but because of the population infl ux, and spoke to the sentiments of the masses. From the beginning, Persian-language new buildings could no longer meet the feature fi lm narratives had a close demands of the people, creating ‘housing Golbarg Rekabtalaei is a cultural historian connection to the city, as can be seen and rent problems.’ Th e fi lm demonstrates of modern Iran and an Assistant Professor of in fi lms such as Haji Aqa, the Cinema the confl icts between old and young History at Seton Hall University. She recently Actor (1933) and Lor Girl (1933). Aft er generations, rural and urban lifestyles, published Iranian Cosmopolitanism: A a decade-long hiatus in feature fi lm traditional and new social norms, and Cinematic History (Cambridge University production from the late 1930s to the how building tenants create the means Press, 2019) late 1940s, the city loomed large again to solve problems that arise from in mid-century productions. While the urbanisation – especially in the absence of fi lms of the 1930s and early 1950s had an eff ective government. a more ambiguous attitude towards Films such as South of the City the urban as a place of encounter, (1958) – or Competition in the City possibilities, and creativity, the fi lms of (1963) – and Qaysar (1969) took a Film poster advertising Storm in Our City, post-WWII increasingly viewed the city more critical outlook on urban life and directed by Samuel Khachikian in a dystopic fashion. Moezzdivan Fekri’s the estrangement of its downtrodden, Th e Shepherd Girl (1953) did not paint blurring the divide between popular Tehran in a dark mode, but it highlighted cinema and alternative cinema. Th e urban the contradictions between the naïveté in these fi lms was the site where Iranian of villagers and the debased, money- values were destroyed by materialism driven and materialistic Tehranis. While (mostly associated with Western norms) including numerous shots of Tehran’s and individualistic hedonism. In the roundabouts and busy streets adorned face of urban trauma, popular fi lms with statues of , promoted Perso-Islamic traditions as a the fi lm depicted the conservative rural panacea against the disenchantment of life as superior to an urban one, as modern urban life. Th e space and rituals Iranian moral norms seemed to have of Zurkhanah (a traditional type of gym), been disappearing in the cities. Samuel everyday religious practices, Islamic Khachikian’s Storm in Our City (1958), tropes and moral norms associated with on the other hand, portrayed Tehran as rural areas and conservative boroughs, merciless in an excessive form. While which fi lmmakers felt were vanishing in the ruthless cityscape alienated those urban settings, became commonplace in who were already ostracised in a rapidly many fi lms. changing society, the fi lm granted the Film Farsi’s light-hearted marginalised, such as single women portrayal of social issues and its and psychiatric patients, a place and a frequent disengagement with realist humanist face. cinematography common in Italian

10 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 IIRANIANRANIAN CCINEMAINEMA

Roya Arab describes the indelible mark Parviz Sayyad left on Iranian cinema

PParvizarviz SSayyad:ayyad: ssocio-politicalocio-political ccommentatorommentator ddressedressed aass vvillageillage ffoolool

Poster advertising Parviz Sayyad’s One Man Show (2018)

amad is arguably Iran’s favourite comic dialogues are largely accompanied with and highly orchestrated, infl uential score character, born out of a nameless Persian drumming. by Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh, provided, Svillage fool played by Parviz Sayyad on Besides a successful commercial fi lm respectively, the high art and artful the Iranian Television series Sarkar Ostovar career, Sayyad was a persistent supporter of commercial vistas of Motefavet fi lms. (1964). Hilarious, somewhat foolhardy ‘Cinemaye Motefavet’ (‘alternative cinema’), Sayyad fi rst became involved in and lovable, Samad made his way through which sought to go beyond commercial Motefavet fi lms in 1965. In 1972 he eight highly successful fi lms laced with cinema, now largely grouped as ‘New Wave’ produced and acted in two social observations and critique, as he and, post-1979, associated with the likes of fi lms. Khastegar (Th e Suitor, 1972), written moved from village to city, attended school, Kiarostami, Panahi & Farhadi. Cinemaye and directed by Hatami and scored by returned from war, became homeless, fell Motefavet was initiated and developed by Monfaredzadeh, utilises Western art and in love and turned into an artist amongst Farrokh Ghaff ari (fi lm intellectual who Iranian classical instruments. It follows a other transformative tales. Samad proved to opened an infl uential fi lm club 1949, man’s lifelong pursuit of a feckless, selfi sh be Sayyad’s most effi cacious body of work and set up the ‘National fi lm archive’), woman who lets him down time and again, and evoked fi lm character. Farrokhzad (poet and realist fi lmmaker), at one point leaving him for her singing Sayyad was born in Lahijan in 1939. Bahram Beyzai (literary, theatrically teacher; the fi lm concludes with a tragic, He began his career writing and acting in nuanced and considered sonic landscapes), poignant scene. Sayyad then produced the theatre before performing alongside and the singular vision of Shahid Saless; and acted in Hatami’s khan (1972) other theatrical luminaries in Iran’s fi rst other contributors include fi lm-directors about an important revolutionary leader television series Amir Arsalan. His fi lm Parviz Kimiavi, in Tabriz during the 1906 Constitutional career began with the role of Hassan in and Kamran Shirdel. Dariush Mehrjui’s Revolution, which eventually led to the Iran’s fi rst musical, Hassan Kachal (1970), remarkable fi lm Gav (Th e Cow, 1968), overthrow of the Qajar Dynasty. Fereydoun written/directed by Ali Hatami. Th e with Hormoz Farhat writing minimal Naseri’s score employs solely Western art lengthy opening credits with rhythmic amounts of music for the score using only a instruments, with one musical celebratory underscoring and unusual pauses pace handful of instruments and Masud Kimiai’s scene showcasing an array of Persian the scene of Hassan’s mother enticing him memorable Qaysar (1968), with its melodic instruments. out of the house with apples. Bald Hassan meets Chelgis, who has been kidnapped by an ogre, and sets off on an odyssey as a Besides a successful commercial fi lm career, Sayyad was a romantic hero. Infused with varied musical persistent supporter of ‘Cinemaye Motefavet’ (‘alternative vignettes paying homage to performance traditions from around the globe, the sung cinema’), which sought to go beyond commercial cinema

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 11 I mentioned to Sayyad that the themes – urban/rural, music, Sayyad initially piqued my interest when I saw him in Iran’s fi rst musical. Aft er rich/poor, modernity/tradition – represented by arthouse viewing more of his fi lms, the nuanced and some commercial fi lms had helped nurture the Revolution. use and portrayal of music – from his depiction of an Iranian pop star’s world in He responded ‘I wanted change not revolution…’ 1978 to discussions of music, its validity and place in Iranian society in 1983 – a lot Sayyad then acted in Asrar ganj dareheye singer pursued by a young handsome fan. of his fi lms echo the ongoing dialogue and jenni (Th e Ghost Valley’s Treasure Mysteries, Arguably risqué in subject matter and its dialectic between music and the socio- 1974), one of only two feature fi lms made portrayal of scenes of a sexual nature, the political context. As an artist who has by Ebrahim Golestan. In it he played an fi lm implied the existence of a corrupt collaborated on art and commercial fi lms, arrogant villager whose fi nancial gains power circle of elites operating in Iran. One I mentioned to Sayyad that the themes – from treasure he discovers and sells – of a few dozen Iranian fi lms made in colour – urban/rural, rich/poor, modernity/ bring much woe. A French horn appears pre-1979, it is scored by Mojtaba Mirzadeh tradition – represented by arthouse in the village, amidst other exotic objects, and infused with musical scenes set in and some commercial fi lms had helped showcasing his fall from grace. Th e fi lm night clubs where performs a nurture the Revolution. He responded ‘I has a sparse score using Western and selection of her popular songs. wanted change not revolution…these were Iranian instruments by Farhad Meshkat Sayyad left Iran shortly aft er 1979. His concerns expressed in fi lms anywhere in and contains a surreal celebratory scene fi lm, Th e Mission (1983) was one of the the world where the process of agriculture with a motley crew atop a hill with song fi rst fi lms made by an Iranian outside to industry was taking place’. Whilst Sayyad and dance. A highly allegorical fi lm about Iran about the exilic condition post-1979. is somewhat remiss in acknowledging buried artefactual treasure leading to It depicts death squads deployed by the the talents of post-Revolution Iranian ruin, the fi lm could be read as referring Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) to assassinate fi lmmakers, we should not overlook his to Iran’s wealth of natural resources and oppositional agitators and follows an valuable contributions to Iranian cinema. their misuse, with some commenting that assassin in pursuit of a former offi cial in the character stood for Mohammad Reza the Shah’s regime. By chance he saves his Roya Arab recorded music with various Shah. In the same year Sayyad produced target from a mugging in the NY subway artists in the 1990s before undertaking Still Life (1974), written and co-directed and realises he now works as a cleaner and an Archaeology BA and MA (IoA, UCL). by Sohrab Shahid Saless. In 1977 he co- not what the IRI’s regime made him out to She is currently a PhD candidate at City, produced Dayereh Mina (Th e Cycle) by be. Th e fi lm has no score but is punctuated University of London studying Iranian fi lm Mehrjui, with Farhat’s minimal musical with a live musical scene eliciting heated music and what it reveals about ongoing touch, unapologetic and acerbic social debate about music in Iranian society. In dialogue and dialectic between society and commentary focussing on a blood bank 1984 he made Trial of Cinema Rex as an music/musicians harvesting and selling the blood of drug attempt to make sense of the tragedy of addicts and street lowlifes to hospitals with the Rex Cinema fi re (August 1978) which relevance beyond Iran, for at the time of took many lives and was a major a turning writing this essay, the USA fi nally admitted point in the lead up to the overthrow to supplying bad blood to the UK in the of the Pahlavi regime. Sayyad has since 1980s. made and appeared in various fi lms, more During the last few years before the 1979 recently providing the voice of Amir for the Revolution, Sayyad wrote, directed and animated fi lm Roxanna (2018). produced Bon Bast (Dead End, 1977), in Sayyad has had a multi-dimensional which a girl presumes the man appearing career; he is an extraordinarily talented regularly at the end of her street is a suitor man who made us laugh, cry and and fantasises endlessly about love, only contemplate through writing, directing, realising in the fi nal scene that he was in producing and acting in a wide range of pursuit of her politically active brother. fi lms and television series. Today, aged 80, Th e fi lm has no score, in the vein of Iran’s he is still touring his one-man theatre show. ‘New Wave’. However, Bon Bast contains Watching Iranian fi lms with a focus on fi lm a spate of pre-composed Western songs emanating from electronic devices in private and public settings. Sparingly and intentionally placed, these, along with posters of musicians including Beethoven and Eno, provide narrative and cultural underpinning. He followed this up with directing and co-producing the highest- Roya Arab (left) and Parviz Sayyad grossing pre-revolution fi lm, Dar Emtedad (right) at ‘Three fi lms from Parviz Shab (Along Th e Night, 1978) in which Sayyad’, Ealing Green Met (Theatre room) in London, United Kingdom, Googoosh – a successful singer and July 2018. Photograph by Ali Akbar actress since the 1960s – plays a popular Arab.

12 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 IIRANIANRANIAN CCINEMAINEMA

Parviz Jahed outlines the development of the crime in Iranian cinema through the works of Masud Kimiai TThehe nnoiroir wworldorld ooff MMasudasud KKimiaiimiai

Behrouz Vossoughi as a vengeful anti-hero in Masud Kimiai’s Qaysar

he 1950s was the commercial seduce and deceive the male protagonist of Kimiai’s fi lms. He usually picked his and artistic peak for fi lm noir and then betray him. characters from the lowest rungs of Tin America and . Th ese With the continuation of the state’s Iranian society: soldiers, day labourers, American and French noirs were being eff orts to enforce modernisation from hoodlums and peasants. Th ey were people shown to a wide audience in Iran at the above, the confl ict between modern who were suff ering from poverty or were time as well. Responding to the public and traditional values was established the victims of injustice and inequality. interest for such stylised visions of the as a theme, and a new form of the crime In Kimiai’s masculine world we see criminal underworld, Iranian fi lmmakers thriller appeared in Iranian New Wave hard-boiled characters clashing against adopted this popular style and created cinema, which was darker and more each other without any kind of mercy. their own brand of noir-inspired gangster pessimistic than the earlier more hollow His emphasis on masculinity in society fi lms intended for the domestic market. eff orts. takes precedence over all else. Women Among them, director Samuel Khachikian Masud Kimiai was among the fi rst of oft en play a minor role in his fi lms; is regarded as the forerunner and referred his generation to focus solely on crimes usually they live under the heavy shadow to as the ‘Iranian Hitchcock’ and master of and criminals in his fi lms, a niche which of men and need their support to survive the crime thriller in Iranian cinema. he continued to pursue throughout. in a patriarchal society. Th e focus oft en In the late 1950s Samuel Khachikian’s Friendship, betrayal and revenge are lies on highlighting brutality and what crime fi lms revelled in Hollywood tropes, the most common thematic elements motivates it. Whilst his protagonists are taking the US-inspired lens to the Iranian underworld. His fi lms featured villainous characters, typically involved with drugs, As an innovative forerunner and a key fi gure in the kidnapping and counterfeiting money, development of Iranian New Wave cinema, Kimiai was as well as deceitful femme fatales, who would assist the criminals and use their fascinated by American fi lm noirs and passionate feminine charms and sexual allure to about the portrayal of rebellious anti-heroes

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 13 Hokm (2006) contains the most constant thematic a young suspected Jewish couple who decided to immigrate to the recently and stylistic elements of Kimiai’s crime fi lms: male founded state of Israel. Th e infl uence camaraderie, deception, revenge and betrayal of an American noir visual style and iconic elements are highly prevalent, including the bleak atmosphere: the contemporary in their appearance, they similarity to and fewer distinctions from problematic and lonely characters trapped look to the past with lamentation and the villains. in unwanted situations, the dark and regret (a past that is always with them and Aft er making a few fi lms within the smoky urban setting, the low-key lighting, which they cannot break away from). crime genre, Kimiai made his powerful the period specifi c cars, customs, guns, Kimiai’s fi lms, whether an anti-Zionist political drama, Gavaznha (Th e Deer) in the atmospheric music and the harsh political piece like Sorb (Th e Lead,1989), 1975. In Gavaznha, the criminality has a violence. or a post-war drama such as Dandan-e political resonance and Kimiai addresses Hokm (2006) contains the most Maar (Th e Snake Fang, 1990) and some critical social issues such as the constant thematic and stylistic elements Gorouhban (Th e Sergeant, 1991), or street- confl ict between good and evil, bank of Kimiai’s crime fi lms: male camaraderie, drama epics such as Radd-e Pa-ye Gorg robbery, armed struggle, police brutality, deception, revenge and betrayal. Th e (Th e Wolf’s Trail, 1992), Soultan (1996) class division and drug addiction which most intrinsically noir element of Hokm and Eteraz (Protest, 1999), or a purely were familiar elements in American noir is the inevitability that dictates the fates of gangster fi lm like Hokm (Th e Verdict, fi lms. Gavaznha may be regarded as the the fi lm’s characters and the actions that 2006), all look to expose and represent fi rst political crime thriller of Iranian drive them towards disaster, an element criminality, violence and heroism. cinema. Th e protagonist was acting sustained from the mob fi lms of the As a former assistant of Khachikian, an against the interests of the government 1930s. innovative forerunner and a key fi gure out of political motivation and, as a Kimiai has managed to perfectly in the development of Iranian New Wave protagonist on the run, he provokes capture the dark, gloomy, demoralising cinema, Kimiai was similarly fascinated sympathy from the audience on a primal and violent atmosphere of fi lm noir in by American fi lm noirs and passionate level. Hokm. His conscious employment of fi lm about the portrayal of rebellious anti- Whereas Kimiai’s Gavaznha was a noir elements – such as high contrast heroes and disaff ected people plagued one-off as a made before lighting, seen especially in the outdoor by poverty and crime. He introduced the 1979 Revolution, the early post- scenes, and closed frames – convey the a more sophisticated form of criminal Revolutionary crime fi lms were mostly feeling of confi nement and helplessness drama to Iranian cinema in 1968 with his about the confl icts between anti-Shah in people. Th e overall eff ect leaves the remarkable fi lm Qaysar. guerrillas and the police. In Khat-e viewer feeling that this fi lm is set in a With his rebellious and anarchic Ghermez (Red Line, 1981) – one of the city rendered helpless as it sleeps at night attitude and a yearning for justice, Qaysar fi rst fi lms to be banned by the authorities while criminals slither through it like becomes the fi rst true anti-hero in aft er the Revolution – a high-ranking wandering ghosts. Iranian cinema. Th e fi lm combined the secret agent of the Shah’s notorious Kimiai has found in fi lm noir the protagonists of revenge-seeking American SAVAK marries a woman whose brother perfect means to express the ruthlessness, Westerns and the dark desperation of fi lm is arrested for his political activities on the violence and corruption that pervade noir. It is the story of a young, alienated verge of the 1979 Revolution. within the heart of Iranian society. By traditional man who attempts to avenge In Kimiai’s Sorb (Th e Lead, 1987), placing the characters and the story in his sister’s rape and his brother’s murder which takes place in 1950s Tehran, the such an environment, he underlines the by a villainous gang. Unlike the pivotal criminals are part of a covert Zionist decadence of humanity and demonstrates characters of the previous Iranian crime organisation attempting to assassinate the idea that people are ruled by material dramas, Qaysar is not driven by money values and a malicious spirit. or love, but solely by revenge. Qaysar’s gruesome realism, graphic violence and doomed characters had never been seen before in Iranian cinema. Th e audience was impressed by the main character’s values and sympathised with his rage and Parviz Jahed is a fi lm critic, fi lmmaker desire to get even. and lecturer in fi lm studies, script writing In the traditional Iranian crime genre, and directing. He is the Editor-in-Chief a happy ending was an uncompromising of Cine-Eye, a fi lm journal published in formula, but in the new crime fi lms London. He is also the author and editor of such as Qaysar, the rebellious character’s a number of books and essays on Iranian criminal acts and anti-social behaviour and , including the two were in fact glorifi ed by the fi lmmaker. volumes of Directory of World Cinema: Qaysar was the victim of injustice in a Iran, published by Intellect in the UK. He world rife with violence, rage and despair. is doing his PhD at the University of St Th e boundary between good and evil was Andrews on the origins of the New Wave blurred and the new heroes bore more cinema in Iran

14 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 IIRANIANRANIAN CCINEMAINEMA

Kaveh Abbasian contrasts the ideals of state-funded Sacred Defence Cinema with modern realities DDamascusamascus TTime:ime: tthehe rresurgenceesurgence ooff IIranianranian ‘‘SacredSacred DDefence’efence’ CCinemainema

ISIS commander and captive Iranian pilot in Syria. Backstage photo from 's Damascus Time (2018). Photograph by Owj Arts and Media Organisation

n 2018, Iranian media outlets In 1989 aft er watching Hatamikia’s Revolution’. He started to believe that associated with the Islamic third fi lm Th e Immigrant, Morteza Avini, creating a new Islamic inspired form of IRevolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) an iconic fi lmmaker/writer of Sacred cinema ‘freed from the shackles of the insisted that a fi lm called Damascus Defence Cinema wrote, ‘Hatamikia blows dominant Western cinema’ was possible. Time, directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia, be his whole existence into the frames, and In 1993, while shooting a documentary submitted as the Iranian representative each time he sets himself on fi re so that about the war, Avini was killed by a to the Oscars. Th eir bid, to their outrage, his fl ames can shed a light, and each landmine. He did not live long enough to was unsuccessful and another fi lm was time like a phoenix, he gains life from witness the later fi lms and the downfall submitted. But why is the IRGC suddenly that fi re’. With this fi lm Avini had found of his ‘phoenix’. In 1998, Hatamikia interested in the Oscars? And why this a new hope in the capabilities of fi ction made his eighth Sacred Defence fi lm: Th e specifi c fi lm? To answer these questions, fi lms in showing what he called ‘the truth Glass Agency. Despite the long-standing we need to go back to the 1980s when of the war’ and the ‘ideals of the Islamic claim of creating a truly independent the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War gave rise to a new state-funded movement in In the 1980s the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War gave rise to a Iranian cinema: the movement that came new state-funded movement in Iranian cinema: the movement to be known as ‘Iranian Sacred Defence Cinema'. that came to be known as ‘Iranian Sacred Defence Cinema’

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 15 cinema, Th e Glass Agency was an obvious While the Sacred Defence Cinema has now expanded adaptation of Dog Day Aft ernoon (1975), a Hollywood production! A similar fate its defi nition to include fi lms about the involvement awaited other Sacred Defence fi lmmakers. of the Islamic Republic in current wars, this new With the growing national disinterest in the topic of the war, many of them – wave has strayed further from its early ideals including Hatamikia – stopped making war fi lms. For a while it seemed like the about the involvement of the Islamic to achieve: justifying Iran’s presence and ‘sacred defence’ had given up its claim on Republic in current wars, this new wave criticising Western involvement in the cinema. has strayed further from the early ideals Syrian civil war. But those offi cials proved Th is phase came to an end with Iran’s of Sacred Defence Cinema theorised by to be more pragmatic and chose another involvement in recent wars in the Middle the likes of Avini. Western methods of fi lm: No Date, No Signature, a fi lm with East. Aft er 23 years of not making a war story development and character building dark social content reminiscent of Iran’s fi lm, Hatamikia went back to his roots are ever more present in these new fi lms, past successful bids for the academy with the 2014 release of Che, which was and the action scenes are clearly planned award. about the war in the 1980s. He followed under the heavy shadow of Hollywood What is clear now is that Sacred that with Bodyguard (2016), a story cinema. Hatamikia’s last two fi lms, Defence fi lmmakers have quietly given about a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War and Bodyguard and Damascus Time, are good up their claim of creating a ‘new form his struggle to protect the son of his old examples of this Western infl uence. He of cinema’. But the need to make war ‘martyred’ comrade, who is now a nuclear decided to shoot these two fi lms based fi lms in order to propagate Iran’s ruling scientist in danger of being assassinated on storyboards. For this purpose, he ideology still remains, and large amounts by foreign powers. And eventually in employed Soheil Danesh Eshraghi, a of state funds continue to fl ow towards 2018 he released Damascus Time, a fi lm young artist known for his Western-styled those fi lmmakers closest to the centres of about the involvement of Iranian pilots comic characters. Th e result is a surreal power. In the middle of all these state- in ‘humanitarian activities’ in the Syrian combination of Western comic-book sponsored war propaganda fi lms, and civil war. aesthetics and Islamic ‘heroes’ who try to in an atmosphere dominated by calls Hatamikia is not alone in this new ‘save Iran from the West’! for war, one is tempted to ask ‘where is wave of Sacred Defence fi lms; many In Damascus Time the mixture of Iranian anti-war cinema’? With only a others, including a new generation of these comic-book elements along with handful of attempts at making anti-war fi lmmakers, have joined the wave too. exaggerated character make-up and fi lms, in a system where censorship is Iran’s Fajr fi lm festival has also been excessive use of relatively poor CGI an omnipresent aspect of fi lmmaking, paying special attention to these fi lms and (computer-generated imagery) creates a anti-war cinema is the forgotten part awards have been directed towards them. situation where the fi lm looks more like of Iranian Cinema. Perhaps, with the Th is New Sacred Defence Cinema is an out-of-date video game rather than emergence of accessible methods of particularly signifi cant when understood the reality of the Syrian civil war and fi lmmaking, the Iranian anti-war cinema as part of the current policies of the the proclaimed ‘sacrifi ces’ of the Iranian will consist of fi lms that will be watched Islamic Republic regarding the political pilots. Th is was the fi lm that IRGC- not on the large screens of mainstream situation in the Middle East. As part of affi liated media outlets championed; they cinema venues but on the small-yet- its internal policy, the state presents its started a campaign to try and persuade inspiring screens of underground fi lm territory as an ‘island of stability’ in a offi cials to send it to the Oscars. Perhaps collectives. turbulent region. Th is ‘island of stability’ by doing so they hoped the fi lm would is depicted as being under ‘foreign reach a larger international audience, threat’ and ‘heroes’ – such as the three ultimately achieving what it was meant main characters in Hatamikia’s last three fi lms – are presented as the saviours. Considering this political affi liation, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Bodyguard, Damascus Time and several other recent Sacred Defence fi lms are produced by the IRGC-funded Owj Arts and Media Organisation, which was founded in 2011. In this year’s festival two war fi lms produced by the Owj organisation Kaveh Abbasian is a fi lmmaker and took home nine out of sixteen Crystal lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Simorghs. Th e Lost Strait (directed the University of Roehampton, London. He by Bahram Tavakkoli) was awarded is a former fellow of John W. Kluge Centre six Simorghs, including Best Picture; at the Library of Congress, Washington Damascus Time received three, including D.C. His PhD thesis is titled Th e Chronicle Best Director. of Triumph: Iranian National Identity and While Sacred Defence Cinema has now Revolutionary Shi’ism in Morteza Avini’s expanded its defi nition to include fi lms Sacred Defence Documentaries

16 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 IIRANIANRANIAN CCINEMAINEMA

Asal Bagheri provides a brief analysis of Everybody Knows AAsgharsghar FFarhadi’sarhadi’s ccinema:inema: a ffamilyamily ttornorn aapartpart

Film poster advertising Everybody Knows, directed by Asghar Farhadi

verybody Knows (2018), in the young, middle class couples torn between from Tehran to Spain, stopping by , same vein as world famous Iranian tradition and modernity, between the betrayal, lying and secrets are the leitmotivs Edirector Asghar Farhadi’s seven past and the future. By using signifi cant of the Farhadian style. He pushes these other movies, is a social family drama with indices – such as a lack of warm colours themes so far that the form embraces the an emphasis on concealment and what in clothes and set design and the selection substance, the fi rst becoming a tool for the remains unsaid. On the occasion of her of desaturated colour palates to set the establishment of the second. Ellipsis is one sister’s wedding, Laura returns with her tone and atmosphere of his fi lms – Farhadi of Farhadi’s favourite narrative techniques, children to her native village in the heart of reveals a cold relationship between the which puts the spectator in a situation of a Spanish vineyard. But unexpected events couples in his movies. Th e couples also uncertainty until he decides to reveal a disrupt her stay and resurrect a past long display few gestures of love or aff ection, truth. buried. and few comforting words are exchanged. In Everybody Knows the spectator In most of his fi lms, Farhadi focusses on No matter which geography he chooses, discovers more information as the story progresses; a character reveals a secret to Ellipsis is one of Farhadi’s favourite narrative another character and at the same time to the spectator, or important information is techniques, which puts the spectator in a situation divulged through a secretive conversation of uncertainty until he decides to reveal a truth between two characters.

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 17 Th e soundscape communicates to the the emptiness of the small epiphanies in the family reunions: the outraged mind of audience the heavy atmosphere of the story a parent who tries to make a child laugh, and indicates the taboos that will soon blow up the exaggerated dance of a party-goer who amuses the gallery, and the embraces of a In the beginning of the fi lm, a young to Paco that Irene is his daughter, she family that is gradually going to break apart girl, Irene, who is later the victim of a puts him in a moral dilemma. She asks over unresolved old confl icts. crime, discovers that her mother, Laura, him to sell his land to pay the kidnappers. and a family friend, Paco, were lovers in In Farhadi’s cinematographic structure, Th e invisible threads of social classes their youth. Later, Laura reveals to Paco women always fi nd ways out of the defi ned Th e triggering event of the story, the that Irene is his daughter and informs ethical frames to save the situation and in kidnapping of a girl in the midst of a her family that her husband has been the end, men, by choosing the ethical ‘right bourgeois wedding celebration, shakes unemployed for more than two years. way’, settle the situation. the superfi cial harmony on screen. Th e Even more shocking is the discovery of euphoric snapshots of siblings celebrating a kidnapping plot, information that the Th e unbearable weight of the family the wedding are juxtaposed with the faces fi lmmaker withholds from the audience In Everybody Knows, the heavy weight of of onlookers contemplating, without joy. until the very end of the fi lm. family relationships and the unsaid secrets Th us, Paco (Javier Bardem, the true hero over the years is depicted from the fi rst of the fi lm) initially suspects his emigrant Women despite men frame. But more than the images, it is the employees of being behind the abduction, In all of Farhadi’s movies, women try to soundscape of the fi lm that is witness to not by purely racist refl ex but by asking the do something to change the problematic the unfolding revelations: from the ticking perverse question ‘What if ...?’ before being situations the couple fi nds themselves in, of a clock (suspense), to the too early himself violently brought back to his social despite the refusal of the men. In Fireworks ding-dong of a bell (the announcement origin (he is the son of a servant) by the Wednesday (2006), Mojdeh follows her of a ceremony that will go wrong), to the patriarch of the family. husband to fi nd out if he is unfaithful, roar of a drone fl ying over a wedding and in the process she gets hit by him; party (the overhanging gods that dictate Th e fi nal word meanwhile, the mistress is the one who the fate of mortals), to the thunderclap Everybody Knows, in addition to the fi nally ends the relationship, despite her that precedes the vibration of a telephone usual themes of Farhadi’s cinema, such as lover’s pleas. Rouhi, the housekeeper feels (the devastation of a mother who reads diff erences in social classes, depicts the compelled to testify to the loyalty of his a message confi rming her greatest fears), complete deterioration of the foundations employer, despite his doubts, in order to to the creaking of a poorly oiled door of the family. Th e grandfather of the family, save the couple’s relationship. In About that resonates in a deserted house (the an elderly man, is a lonely man who is Elly (2009), Sepideh repeatedly lies to save loneliness of a man who sacrifi ced his hated by the entire village. Over the years a situation, starting with the beginning existence). It is this soundscape that he has lost his fortune due to gambling. Th e of their journey where she lies to the communicates to the audience the heavy new groom of the family and his young owner of the villa and Ahmad’s atmosphere of the story and indicates the wife hate their family. Laura’s husband relationship. Finally, it is for one of her taboos that will soon blow up. is bankrupt and unemployed. Paco sells lies that Sepideh gets violently hit by her Th e sound obeys a well-defi ned his vineyard, his only possession, and husband. In (2011), it is rhythmic strategy, encapsulating thriller his wife may be leaving him. And fi nally, Simin who decides to leave her husband; moments while pointing out the emptiness the joyful Irene is turned into a beaten and later, Simin also tries to fi x a tricky of the images that scroll on the screen. and traumatised girl. Th ree generations situation by attempting to pay the caretaker Because emptiness is perhaps precisely mistreated by the script reveal allegories of that her husband, Nader, shoved out the the subject of the fi lm, Farhadi insists on an ailing past, present and future. Insisting door and onto the stairs. Th e caretaker, on symbols and objects (the clock, a door Razieh, who is responsible for looking aft er tossed by the wind), Farhadi depicts a Nader’s elderly father, and her husband tragic thriller which laboriously gives fl esh also have a similar Farhadian relationship: to fate. Razieh works without the knowledge of her husband in order to pay his debts. She is also ultimately the one who makes the decision not to accept money from the well-to-do Simin and Nader, because she is Asal Bagheri has a PhD in Semiology and no longer sure that the loss of her baby was Linguistics, with a specialization in Iranian due to Nader’s mistreatment of her. Cinema. She’s the author of the thesis In Everybody Knows Laura, played by Men & women relationships in post- Penelope Cruz, like all other women in revolutionary Iranian Cinema: Directors’ Farhadi’s movies, seems to be a passive strategies and semiotic analysis. Her woman. Nevertheless, she is the one, forthcoming book, which will be published despite her husband’s refusal, who decides in French, is entitled Feelings, Love and to reveal a very important secret to save Sexuality: the Cinema’s Dilemma in her daughter from kidnappers. Revealing Islamic Republic of Iran

18 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 IIRANIANRANIAN CCINEMAINEMA

Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad explores how and why diasporic Iranian fi lmmakers set their fi lms in Iran IImaginingmagining hhomelandomeland ffromrom a ddistance:istance: nnewew ddiasporiciasporic vvisionsisions ooff IIranran

Film poster advertising Tehran Taboo (2017), directed by Ali Soozandeh

omeland is oft en a subject of Alone at Night (2014), Under the Shadow giant oil pumps feature in the industrial diasporic representation. Migrant (2016) and Tehran Taboo (2017) – I will landscape, women wear the veil outdoors Hfi lmmakers imagine their place discuss their representations of homeland, and dance to popular music indoors, of origin in various ways based on exploring how the new generation of and everyone speaks Persian, albeit oft en political positions, personal and familial diasporic Iranian fi lmmakers construct less than perfectly. Th e street signs, the experiences as well as aesthetic choices Iran as a narrative space in contrasting graffi ti and even people’s tattoos are in to do with the stories they wish to tell. but intersecting ways that at once resonate Persian. Th e fi lm is more black than white Oft en the representations of homeland with the award-winning Iranian cinema in every sense of the word: Bad City is a tend to be of a boundless and timeless of the last four decades and broaden its lawless place where corpses pile under a place that is nostalgically fetishised. In boundaries in bold new directions. bridge and a violent, drug-pushing pimp contrast, political exiles tend to construct Shot in California, A Girl Walks has his profession tattooed on his head. their place of origin as claustrophobic Home Alone at Night (2014) is Ana Th e only force for good is a chador-clad places of surveillance. Exploring three Lili Amirpour’s fi rst feature fi lm. It is a skate-boarding female vampire who recent diasporic directors’ fi lms that are beautiful vampire fi lm set avenges the marginalised, particularly the set in Iran – namely, A Girl Walks Home in an Iranian town called ‘Bad City’, where female victims of patriarchy. Her wearing of the black chador (a head-to-toe cloak) subverts the stereotypical iconography of Th e new generation of diasporic Iranian fi lmmakers construct Iran the veil and the oft en taken-for-granted as a narrative space in contrasting but intersecting ways that at unidirectional, subjugating power relations read into it. Her chador fl oats once resonate with the award-winning Iranian cinema of the last in the air behind her like a cape as she four decades and broaden its boundaries in bold new directions glides on her skateboard down the street,

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 19 Th e fi lms’ production in Persian and settings in Iran are underbelly of Tehran about two women and a man whose lives intersect through testimony to the strong following of Iranian fi lms in the West a narrative about their sex lives. Such themes are oft en alluded to in fi lms made making her look like a superhero. Th e to enter the building through the cracks in Iran but are here explored in sordid chador also allows the vampire to blend created by the bomb and infect the lives of detail, including an aff air between a in with the darkness as she lurks at night Shideh and Dorsa. clergyman/judge and a prostitute. Th is waiting for her next villain-cum-victim. has recreated the horrors of the beautifully created, animated fi rst feature Th ere is more to the ‘Iranian-ness’ fi rst decade of the post-Revolutionary comes portrays Iran more accurately of the fi lm than the veil. Like the now- period to chilling eff ect. Th e surveillance than the two fi lms mentioned cliched image of middle-class youth regime and socio-political oppression, previously, or any other diasporic fi lm in Tehran, there is a Western style including the forceful imposition of for that matter. Th e cityscape that forms party which – the James-Dean the veil on women, are overtones of the the background of the fi lm is remarkably lookalike would-be lover of the vampire atmosphere in and out of the building. Tehran-like and the dialogue mimics the girl – attends. Some of the middle-class Th e ghost appears mainly as a faceless language spoken on the streets. youth wear a plaster over their noses as a chador-clad woman. Shideh once takes While tales of desperation, loneliness recognisable mark of having had plastic fright when she suddenly sees her own and patriarchal hypocrisy dominate the surgery, as is fashionable in Iran. Th e refl ection in a black chador in the mirror fi lms, there are subtle but prominent fi lmmaker has billed the fi lm as ‘the fi rst before taking it off in disgust. However, traces of optimism in and about them. Iranian vampire Western’; thus, on the the veil is not an icon in and unto itself: Th e fi lms’ production in Persian and one hand, the fi lm draws on the director’s the child, Dorsa tells her mother that detailed settings in Iranian time-space Iranian background, including her the ghost insists that Shideh cannot look are testimony to the strong following of knowledge of Iranian popular music, as aft er her but she could. Her husband tells Iranian fi lms in the West, including a well as the admiration for Iranian cinema her on the phone that she cannot look sizeable with cultural in the West. On the other, it makes a aft er Dorsa, calls her a ‘whore’, ‘useless’ capital and a critical eye for detail. In each connection to vampire and Western fi lm and ‘nothing but a disappointment’. fi lm there seems to be a very conscious genres that are less relevant to Iranian Shideh looks at her medical books with eff ort to improve on the predecessors cinema. longing, particularly one in English gift ed to create a more detailed construction Under the Shadow (2016) is a horror and signed by her mother. Th e chador of the fi lmic location as Iran. Th e fi lm set in Tehran, Iran (but shot in represents the claustrophobic role of fi lms, particularly the last two, show Jordan) and entirely in Persian. Th e fi lm ‘housewife’ which is being imposed on deep critical knowledge of urban Iran, is the British-Iranian director Babak her. In a frightening scene Shideh enters including the lives of the cosmopolitan Anvari’s fi rst feature. Th e director has the fl apping, oversized tent-like chador/ youth. Like much of post-Revolutionary painstakingly brought the Persian- ghost to rescue Dorsa, who is being Iranian cinema, they all feature complex speaking diasporic cast together from all swallowed by it. gender politics with strong female over the world and has used photos and Th e third fi lm is Tehran Taboo (2017) characters in battles with the patriarchy. memories of his childhood in Iran to by Ali Soozanzadeh, a German-Iranian Finally, all three are visually stunning, recreate the Iranian space in Jordan. fi lmmaker. Th e fi lm is done in rotoscope, wonderfully craft ed and innovative fi lms, Th e story is about a young woman with live action characters turned into each of which has a cinematic freshness called Shideh and her 7 or 8-year-old with digital background that is on par with some of the best fi lms daughter Dorsa who are residents of a images that strongly resemble Tehran. made in Iran. block of fl ats in Tehran during the Iraqi Th is noir Persian-language fi lm tells bombing raids in the late 1980s. Th e three intertwining stories from the seedy opening titles declare that at the time Iran went through rapid political and cultural transition as a legacy of the bloody 1979 Revolution. Shideh has been expelled from her course in medicine at university for political reasons during the so-called Cultural Revolution. Her husband, Iraj, who goes away to the war front, tells her repeatedly on the phone that she must leave Tehran to go to his parents in the north of Iran to be safe from bombing raids. When an unexploded Iraqi bomb Dr Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad lectures at the literally penetrates the building from the Centre for Media and Film Studies, SOAS. top and leaves much of it cracked other He is the author of Th e Politics of Iranian residents abandon the building. Refusing Cinema: Films and Society in the Islamic to give up her independence, Shideh Republic (Routledge, 2010). His current stays, a decision with grave consequences; research is about transnational media and imaginary or ‘real’ ghostly jinn appear new modes of authority in Shi’i

20 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: FILMSFILMS ‘‘PoetsPoets ooff LLife’ife’ & © Peyman Houshmandzadeh/Karestan ‘‘Puzzleys’,Puzzleys’, ppartart ooff tthehe KKarestanarestan seriesseries Directed by Shirin Barghnavard & Mehdi Ganji, respectively

Local women working on a paddy fi eld in Iran. Still taken from Reviewed by Taraneh Dadar Shirin Barghnavard's documentary Poets of Life (2017)

ew Iranian Cinema – as the documentary fi lmmaker, they launched Directors Banietemad and Mirtahmasb arthouse fi lms coming mostly the Karestan project in spring 2015. shot the fi lm over the last four years of Nout of post-revolutionary Iran Against the backdrop of Western and Mirhadi’s life. Aft er the state broadcaster were referred to in Western fi lm circles domestic pressures on Iranians, the series IRIB refused to show the fi lm, the two – was known for its unique blend of has set itself the simple yet daunting task took the unusual step of relying solely on documentary and fi ction, with fi lms of giving hope: through the stories of online screenings in a massive campaign such as Abbas Kiarostami’s Close Up men and women who have overcome all endorsed by many other celebrities. (1990) putting Iranian cinema fi rmly on sorts of obstacles to realise their dream, Th e proceeds from the screenings were the world map. But while New Iranian be it to start a locally-owned eco-feminist donated to the Children’s Book Council, Cinema is an established national paddy fi eld, establish a charity for treating and the Encyclopaedia for Children and tradition, not enough is known about children with cancer, or create a 100 per Young Adults, both founded by the late Iran’s equally rich documentary cinema. cent waste recycling plant. Mirhadi. Since its birth in 1900, Iranian Puzzleys tells the story of how four Indeed, independence in production documentary cinema has gone through students living Birjand – the capital of and exhibition is key to Karestan’s numerous changes, but has maintained its South Khorasan province – move to business model. In the lively Q&A resilient, innovative and subversive spirit, Tehran to launch their start-up to create session which followed the screenings making the best of whatever support an app which allows others to create at SOAS, the fi lmmakers emphasised has been available and surviving and their own apps. Poets of Life off ers us time and again their determination to thriving in the face of challenges, from a glimpse into the life of Shirin Parsi, stay independent in funding, choice fi nancing and production to exhibition a farmer, environmentalist and social of subject matter and avenues for and distribution. activist who works against all odds to exhibition, and outlined the enormous A taste of this spirit was showcased in produce organic rice, promote sustainable challenges involved in doing so. In this, SOAS on 24 November 2018, with the farming and campaign against the use the discussion off ered a glimpse not just screening of two documentaries, Poets of chemicals. Structured around Shirin’s into the Karestan project, but also into of Life (Shirin Barghnavard, 2017) and daily activities, and punctuated by her broader issues that independent Iranian Puzzleys (Mehdi Ganji, 2017), followed voice-over reading her poems, the fi lm is documentary cinema grapples with. by a Q&A session with Barghnavard and a tribute to one woman’s determination to seasoned directors Rakhshan Banietemad build a sustainable, local economy despite Th e Karestan series is available to watch and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. the corruption, mismanagement and on IMVBOX, a streaming service for Th e two fi lms are part of Karestan, greed that challenges her vision. Planting Iranian fi lms with English subtitles. More a documentary series about unsung her tomatoes, she tells the camera: ‘My info can be found at www.karestanfi lm. local heroes in Iran, celebrated for their happiness is as big as this tomato, that com entrepreneurial skills and commitment to strawberry, as big as those worms. My creating a better world around them. Th e sorrows I choose not to dwell on.’ Taraneh Dadar is a communications idea of the series was conceived in 2013 Seven fi lms have already been made professional based in London. She did a by renowned Iranian Rakhshan as part of the series, as listed on the PhD on gender and popular cinema in Banietemad, whose long career spans Karestan website. Another key fi lm in the post-revolutionary Iran documentary and feature fi lms with a series is Touran Khanum (2018), about strong focus on social issues and strong the life of Touran Mirhadi (1927-2016), female characters. Together with Mojtaba a visionary educator who believed that Mirtahmasb, another acclaimed Iranian ‘peace needs to be cultivated at childhood’.

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 21 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF YYemenemen aandnd tthehe WWorld:orld: BBeyondeyond IInsecuritynsecurity By Laurent Bonnefoy

Th e Saudi off ensive launched in 2015 has made Yemen a victim of regional power struggles, while the global ‘war on terror’ has labelled it a threat to international security. Th is perception has had disastrous eff ects: the country’s complex political dynamics have been largely ignored by international observers – resulting in problematic, if not counterproductive, international policies. Yemen and the World off ers a corrective to these misconceptions and omissions, putting aside the nature of the world’s interest in Yemen to focus on Yemen’s role on the global stage. Laurent Bonnefoy uses six areas of modern international exchange – globalisation, diplomacy, trade, migration, culture and militant Islamism – to restore Yemen to its place at the heart of contemporary aff airs.

October 2018, Hurst, £35.00 EEnvironmentnvironment PPoliticsolitics iinn tthehe MMiddleiddle EEast:ast: LLocalocal SStruggles,truggles, GGloballobal CConnectionsonnections Edited by Harry Verhoeven

Th is book investigates how ecology and politics meet in the Middle East and how those interactions connect to the global political economy. Th rough region-wide analyses and case studies from the Arabian Peninsula, the Gulf of Aden, the Levant and North Africa, the volume highlights the intimate connections of environmental activism, energy infrastructure and illicit commodity trading with the political economies of Central Asia, the Horn of Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Th e book’s nine chapters analyse how the exploitation and representation of the environment have shaped the history of the region – and determined its place in global politics. It argues that how the ecological is understood, instrumentalised and intervened upon is the product of political struggle: deconstructing ideas and practices of environmental change means unravelling claims of authority and legitimacy.

September 2018, Hurst, £25.00 IInsidenside tthehe AArabrab SStatetate

By Mehran Kamrava

Inside the Arab State examines a broad range of political, economic, and social variables that have shaped conceptions of power, the functions and institutions of the state, the rise and evolution of social movements, the eruption of civil war in some countries and fragile polities in others, and evolving civil-military relations before and aft er the 2011 uprisings. Beginning with an analysis of politics and political institutions in the Arab world from the 1950s onwards, the book traces the challenges faced by Arab states, and the wounds they infl icted on their societies and on themselves along the way. At the crux of the book are the 2011 uprisings, states’ responses to them, and eff orts by political leaders to carve out new forms of legitimacy, as well as the reasons for the emergence and rise of the Islamic State.

June 2018, Hurst, £25.00

22 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF TThehe UUnitednited SStatestates aandnd tthehe IIranianranian NNuclearuclear PProgramme:rogramme: A CriticalCritical HHistoryistory By Steven Hurst

Steven Hurst traces the development of the Iranian nuclear crisis across its historical context: from the conception of Iran's nuclear programme under the Shah to the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. Emphasising the centrality of domestic politics in decision-making on both sides, Hurst adopts a broader perspective on the Iranian nuclear programme and explains the continued failure of the USA to halt it. He reveals how President Obama’s alterations to the American strategy, accompanied by shift s in Iranian domestic politics, fi nally brought about a resolution.

August 2018, Edinburgh University Press, £75.00

TThehe AArabrab GGulfulf SStatestates andand tthehe WWestest

Edited by Dania Koleilat Khatib and Marwa Maziad

Th e Arab Gulf States and the West examines the changing image of the Arab Gulf States in the West. It addresses the question of perception in international relations and how the Arab States of the Gulf have pursued various endeavours to project themselves into the Western imagination. Th e chapters generate ideas on how perceptions came about and ways to improve cultural and political realities on the ground in the Arab Gulf States, thereby paving the way for a new area of research in the fi eld of Gulf Studies that extends beyond traditional international relations frameworks by incorporating elements of intercultural communication.

October 2018, Routledge, £29.99 TThehe SShah,hah, TThehe IIslamicslamic RRevolutionevolution aandnd tthehe UUnitednited SStatestates By Darioush Bayandor

Th e Islamic Revolution in 1979 transformed Iranian society and reshaped the political landscape of the Middle East. Four decades later, Darioush Bayandor draws upon heretofore untapped archival evidence to re-examine the complex domestic and international dynamics that led to the Revolution. Beginning with the socioeconomic transformation of the 1960s, this book follows the Shah’s rule through the 1970s, tracing the emergence of opposition movements, the Shah’s blunders and miscalculations, the infl uence of the post-Vietnam zeitgeist and the role of the Carter administration. Th e Shah, the Islamic Revolution and the United States off ers new revelations about how Iran was thrown into chaos and an ailing ruler lost control, with consequences that still reverberate today.

2019, , £69.99

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 23 IINN MMEMORIAMEMORIAM RRogeroger OOwenwen ((1935-2018)1935-2018) Sami Zubaida

1969), the fi rst of many on the history I fi rst met Roger in the early 1970s, and politics of the region. His mentor with Talal Asad. Th e three of us, then at St Antony’s was Albert Hourani, who attuned to left ist politics and theoretical was an important infl uence on Roger’s orientations, were dissatisfi ed with the intellectual development and academic ‘orientalist’ tenor of much of the fi eld networks. Roger was appointed Lecturer of Middle East Studies, and embarked in Economic History of the Middle East on developing more sociological and in 1964 at St Antony’s, a post he held political orientations, with Marxist until 1993, serving as Director of the overtones. We were soon joined by Fred Middle East Centre at various periods Halliday. Th is was the nexus of a later between 1971 and 1993. He left in 1993 expansion into a wider network, known to take up appointment to the A J Meyer as ‘the Hull Group’; Hull, where Talal Chair of Middle East History at Harvard was based, being the initial location of University, where he remained until his the fi rst few meetings. Th is then became retirement, acting as Director of the the Middle East Studies Group, which Centre for Middle East Studies 1996-99. continues to meet till the present day Roger ranged widely in his research – but without Roger and Talal, both and writing over the history and politics having left for the US. Over the years I of the region. It was this combination of enjoyed an aff ectionate friendship with political analysis with historical depth Roger, meeting on many occasions, and direct and intimate connection to the mostly at Harvard, and most recently at societies and cultures of the region which an enjoyable seminar on Iraqi Pasts and made his books and lectures so attractive. Futures in 2016. His textbook, State, Power and Politics Roger leaves his fi rst wife, Ursula, in the Making of the Modern Middle and their daughter, Kate, as well as two oger Owen, a pillar of Middle East (Routledge 1992/2000), continues children, Ben and Isabel, from his second East studies, passed away on 22 to have wide popularity in teaching and marriage to Margaret, which ended in RDecember 2018, a great sadness reference. He returned to the history divorce. Margaret pre-deceased him. to family, friends and colleagues. Roger of Egypt in a brilliant biography, Lord had deep roots in the region, both Cromer: Victorian Imperialist, Edwardian Sami Zubaida is Emeritus Professor personal and scholarly. Aft er his demob Proconsul (, 2004), of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck, from national service in 1956 in , a vivid portrait of that epoch. Th is was University of London and a member of the Roger embarked on various travels in followed in 2012 with the highly topical magazine’s Editorial Board the region – Egypt, Palestine-Israel, Th e Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Lebanon – which sowed the seeds of his Life (Harvard University Press), coming as interest and aff ection. Aft er graduating it did at the height of the ‘Arab Spring’. from Oxford in 1956, he began graduate Roger’s last book was a memoir, A research in economic history, looking Life in Middle East Studies (2016), a specifi cally at the role of cotton in the fascinating narrative of his various and Egyptian economy. Th is took him to frequent travels in the region, ranging Egypt, with his fi rst wife, Ursula Owen, over many places, personalities and who later became a distinguished writer events, marking its modern history. He and activist. He was attached to the AUC, had a deep personal connection to the where he and Ursula taught English. Th e region and its people. ‘Cairo remained a research earned him a DPhil from Oxford kind of second home, full of friends, as in 1964, and led to his fi rst book, Cotton well as buildings, nooks and crannies, and the Egyptian Economy, 1820-1914: A and old mosque complexes still to be Study of Trade and Development (Oxford explored’, he wrote (p. 68).

24 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 LISTINGS EEventsvents iinn LLondonondon

HE EVENTS and Darwish. Tickets: £20-£40. organisations listed below Barbican Hall, Barbican Centre, Tare not necessarily endorsed Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. T or supported by The Middle East in 020 7638 8891 E tickets@barbican. London. The accompanying texts org.uk W www.barbican.org.uk and images are based primarily on information provided by the Monday 4 February organisers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the compilers 5:15 pm | Intellectuals, Fellahin or publishers. While every possible and Emancipatory Politics effort is made to ascertain the in Rural Egypt: A Gramscian accuracy of these listings, readers Reading (Lecture) Francesco are advised to seek confirmation de Lellis (University of Naples of all events using the contact "L'Orientale"). Organised by: LSE details provided for each event. Middle East Centre. Th e dialect Submitting entries and updates: between the peasantry and the please send all updates and intellectuals was key to the work submissions for entries related of Antonio Gramsci, de Lellis links to future events via e-mail to these refl ections with reference [email protected] to crucial historical junctures in Egypt. Chair: John Chalcraft (LSE BM – British Museum, Great Middle East Centre). Admission Russell Street, London WC1B free. Pre-registration required. 3DG Research Centres Meeting Suite, SOAS –SOAS, University of 9th Floor, Pankhurst House, London, Th ornhaugh Street, Clement's Inn, WC2A 2AZ T 020 Russell Square, London WC1H 7955 7038 E m.r.perez-herrero@ 0XG lse.ac.uk W www.lse.ac.uk/ LSE – London School of middle-east-centre/ Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2 6:15 pm | Th e Mythologies of 2AE Mesopotamia and India: Are Th ey Connected? (Lecture) Jens Braarvig (Oslo). Organised FEBRUARY EVENTS by: Th e London Centre for the Ancient Near East with the support of the Th riplow Sunday 3 February Charitable Trust. Part of the Ancient Near East Public Lectures 1:00 pm | SOAS Arabic Choir Th e Gods of Old: Th e Mythology of SOAS Arabic Choir meets every Ancient Iraq. Convener: Andrew Joseph Tawadros (see March Events, Tuesday 19 March, p. 33) second Sunday at SOAS. Th e choir George (SOAS). Admission free. sings songs from diff erent parts Alumni Lecture Th eatre, Paul of the Arabic musical tradition - Webley Wing (Senate House), Annual Lecture at SOAS. Th e E [email protected] W www.soas. oft en songs with a radical stance. SOAS. E [email protected] W http:// fi rst of two lectures by Touraj ac.uk/lmei-cis/events/ All welcome. For further details banealcane.org/lcane/ Atabaki on Seventy Years in the E [email protected] W www. Social History of the Iranian Oil 5:30 pm | Commemorative geocities.ws/soasarabicband Tuesday 5 February Industry (1908-1978): Labour Religious Processions in and Beyond, the second will take Byzantine Constantinople 7:30 pm | Le Trio Joubran 5:30 pm | Seventy Years in the place on Wednesday 6 February. (Seminar) Vicky Manolopoulou (Concert) Oud masters and Social History of the Iranian Oil Iran experienced signifi cant (King’s College London). innovators Le Trio Joubran Industry (1908-1978): Labour upheavals and radical change Organised by: Centre for Hellenic perform music from a career and Beyond (Th e Development during the twentieth century but Studies, King’s College London. spanning fi ft een years including Years) (Lecture) Touraj Atabaki what characterised the twentieth Manolopoulou explores the their new album Th e Long March, (International Institute of century in Iran most was arguably processions of the two liturgical continuing to combine musical Social History, Amsterdam). the discovery of oil in 1908. cycles of the tenth century worlds with collaborations from Organised by: Centre for Iranian Admission free. Khalili Lecture cathedral rite in Constantinople. Roger Waters and poet Mahmoud Studies, SOAS. Kamran Djam Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 Part of the Late Antique and

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 25 LONDON MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE SOAS University of London

TUESDAY LECTURE PROGRAMME ON THE CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EAST SPRING 2019

5 February *5:30pm start Kamran Djam Annual Lecture at SOAS: Seventy Years in the Social History of the Iranian Oil Industry (1908-1978): Labour and Beyond (The Development Years) Touraj Atabaki (International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam) Organised by the Centre for Iranian Studies 12 February Reading Week 19 February Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East Adam Hanieh (SOAS), Laleh Khalili (SOAS) and Sara Salem (LSE) 26 February TBC 5 March Human Rights in the MENA Region: Challenges and Opportunities Mishana Hosseinioun (University of Oxford), Moataz El Fegiery (Front Line Defenders) and Melek Saral (SOAS) Organised jointly with the SOAS Centre of African Studies and the SOAS School of Law 12 March TBC 19 March Traces of Racial Exception: Racializing the Israeli Settler Colony Ronit Lentin (Trinity College Dublin) and Haim Bresheeth Organised jointly with the Centre for Palestine Studies

TUESDAYS 5:45 PM Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS University of London, Russell Square WC1H 0XG

Admission Free - All Welcome

For further information contact: London Middle East Instutute, SOAS University of London, MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA. T: 020 7898 4330 E [email protected] W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/

26 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 Byzantine Studies seminar series. 7862 8716 E valerie.james@sas. Tuesday 12 February MacLehose Press. Admission Admission free. K2.29 Council ac.uk W https://ics.sas.ac.uk/ free. Pre-registration required W Room, King’s Building, Strand 6:00 pm | Documenting Syria: www.waterstones.com/events/ Campus, King's College London, Saturday 9 February Filmmaking, Video Activism search/category/1/shop/piccadilly Strand, London, WC2R 2LS. E and Revolution (Lecture) Joshka Waterstones Piccadilly, London [email protected] W www.kcl.ac.uk/ 10:00 pm | Perceptions of Wessels (Lund University). W1V 9LW. E info@banipaltrust. artshums/ahri/centres/chs/events/ Assyria: Art, Culture and Politics Organised by: LSE Middle East org.uk W www.banipaltrust.org. events.aspx (Symposium) Organised by: Centre. Admission free. Pre- uk BM. Assyria’s ‘rediscovery’ in the registration required. Venue TBC. 6:00 pm | Th e Transboundary nineteenth century captured the T 020 7955 7038 E m.r.perez- Saturday 16 February Politics of the Yarmouk public imagination in Europe and [email protected] W www.lse. River (Lecture) Mark Zeitoun went on to infl uence European art ac.uk/middle-east-centre/ 11:00 pm | Digital Workshop: (University of East Anglia). and design. Th e symposium will Egyptian Photo Booth Organised Organised by: LSE Middle East examine perceptions of Assyria in 6:45 pm | Converging Paths: by: BM. Use a range of digital Centre. Admission free. Pre- art, culture and politics from the Cultural Encounters in Medieval technology to turn yourself into registration required. Venue TBC. nineteenth century to the present Islam (Talk) Scott Redford a pharaoh, an Egyptian god and T 020 7955 7038 E m.r.perez- day. Tickets: £25/£15 conc. Pre- (SOAS) and Jeremy Johns (Khalili other characters in the Museum's [email protected] W www.lse. registration required. BP Lecture Research Centre, University of Great Court. Admission free. ac.uk/middle-east-centre/ Th eatre, Clore Education Centre, Oxford), Jacqueline Cockburn T 020 7323 8181 Great Court, BM. T 020 7323 8181 W www. (V&A, Christies Education, BM. T 020 7323 8000 W www. britishmuseum.org Th e Art Fund, Th e London Art britishmuseum.org Wednesday 6 February History Society and Art Pursuits). Sunday 10 February Organised by: Asia House and 11:00 am | Nadine Kaadan: 5:00 pm | Th e Ragged Edge of Th e Barakat Trust. Th ree guest Stories of Syria (Workshop) Part Empire: Materializing Power in 2:30 pm | Myths Retold: Th e scholars will present and discuss of Imagine Children's Festival. the Achaemenid West (Seminar) Crick Crack Club presents their research on the cultural Hear about a courageous little boy Lindsay Allen (King's College Gilgamesh (Performance) interconnections and coexistence growing up in a time of confl ict in a London). Organised by: Institute Organised by: BM and the Crick experienced by border societies in storytelling and art workshop with of Classical Studies. Classical Crack Club. Over 3,500 years early and Medieval Islam. Followed children’s author and illustrator Archaeology Seminar Series. aft er this ancient Mesopotamian by a reception. Part of the series Nadine Kaadan. For ages 4 – 7. Admission free. Woburn Room, myth was fi rst recorded on Converging Paths. Tickets: £10/£8 Tickets: £8. Foyle Pavilion, Level G22, Ground Floor, Senate House, clay tablets in cuneiform, conc. W www.eventbrite.com Asia 3, Blue Side, Southbank Centre, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. storyteller, Ben Haggarty, and House, 63 New Cavendish Street, Belvedere Road, London SE1 T 020 7862 8716 E valerie.james@ multi-instrumentalist, Jonah London W1G 7LP. T 020 7307 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W www. sas.ac.uk W https://ics.sas.ac.uk/ Brody, bring Gilgamesh to the 5454 E [email protected] W southbankcentre.co.uk stage. Tickets: £8/£6 conc. Pre- https://asiahouse.org/ 7:00 pm | Seventy Years in the registration required T 020 7323 1:15 pm | Pharaohs and Hittites Social History of the Iranian Oil 8181 BP Lecture Th eatre, Clore 7:00 pm | Masks of MENA, (Gallery Talk) Organised by: Industry (1908-1978): Labour Education Centre, BM. T 020 7323 Celebrating Arab + Iranian BM. George Hart (Independent and Beyond (Th e Years of 8000 W www.britishmuseum.org Art & Culture Organised by: Speaker). Room 4, BM. Admission Confrontations) (Lecture) Touraj FemDiplomacy (Leila Mansouri) free. T 020 7323 8000 W www. Atabaki (International Institute Monday 11 February & Samaneh Ashrafi . An evening britishmuseum.org of Social History, Amsterdam). of Arab and Iranian art, cuisine, Organised by: Centre for Iranian 5:30 pm | On Continuity: From and culture. Hors d'oeuvres will 1:30 pm | Nadine Kaadan: Stories Studies, SOAS. Kamran Djam the Hellenistic Jews to the be provided by Aleppo Supper of Syria (Workshop) Part of Annual Lecture at SOAS. Th e Romaniotim of Modern Greece Club, and proceeds will go to Imagine Children's Festival. See second of two lectures by Touraj (Seminar) Johannes Niehoff - assisting Syrian refugees. Silent above event listing for details. Atabaki on Seventy Years in the Panagiotidis (Freie Universität, auction featuring Arab and Social History of the Iranian Oil Berlin). Organised by: Centre for Iranian contemporary artists. Monday 18 February Industry (1908-1978): Labour Hellenic Studies, King’s College Jewelry by Iranian designer Haleh and Beyond, see above listing on London and the SOAS Modern Bakhtiari, Founder of Hanoba 11:00 am | Half-term Activities: Tuesday 5 February for venue Turkish Studies Programme. Th e Design. Tickets: £16.31. W www. Ashurbanipal's Palace Organised and contact details. Lecture to be historical role of the Hellenistic eventbrite.com Caff e' Rei, 3 by: BM. A week of free activities preceded by a reception at 6:00pm Jews as a touchstone of European Hay Hill, London W1J 6AS. E themed on the Assyrian king, in the Paul Webley Wing Cloister and Near Eastern intellectual [email protected] Ashurbanipal (Monday 18 - (Senate House). history stands beyond doubt. Th e Friday 22 February). Admission question addressed by this talk Th ursday 14 February free. T 020 7323 8181 Great Court, Th ursday 7 February is: What was the history of these BM. T 020 7323 8000 W www. Jews aft er the parting of the ways, 6:30 pm | An Evening with britishmuseum.org 4:30 pm | Mobility and the Link between Christianity and Judaism? Luke Leafgren and Muhsin Al- to Universalism in the Ancient Part of the Greek-Turkish Ramli Organised by: Banipal 6:00 pm | Aramaic and the Near East (Seminar) Mark Encounters series. Admission Trust for Arab Literature. Luke Native Voice: 300 BCE to CE Altaweel (UCL). Organised by: free. River Room, King's Building, Leafgren is the winner of the 2018 (Lecture) John Healey (University Institute of Classical Studies. Strand Campus, King's College Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for of Manchester). Organised by: Ancient History Seminar Series. London, Strand, London, WC2R Arabic Literary Translation for Anglo-Israel Archaeological Admission free. Th e Court Room, 2LS. E [email protected] W www.kcl. his translation of the novel Th e Society jointly with the Institute First Floor, Senate House, Malet ac.uk/artshums/ahri/centres/chs/ President's Gardens by Iraqi author of Archaeology, UCL. Followed Street, London WC1E 7HU. T 020 events/events.aspx Muhsin al-Ramli, published by by refreshments. Admission free.

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 27 Lecture Th eatre G6, Institute of W www.iransociety.org / www. Anatolia (Lecture) C Brian Rose com/events/2019072524828395/ / Archaeology, UCL, 31–34 Gordon therag.co.uk (University of Pennsylvania). www.thesantur.com Square, London WC1H OPY. T Annual Denys Haynes Memorial 020 8349 5754 E secretary@aias. Wednesday 20 February Lecture. Rose is the director of Sunday 24 February org.uk W www.aias.org.uk excavations at two legendary sites 7:00 pm | A Reappraisal of in Turkey – Troy and Gordion. In 7:30 pm | Shahram Nazeri 6:15 pm | Ashurbanipal’s Library Timurid Ceramics (Lecture) this talk he highlight’s the positive & Davlatmand Kholov: Th e and the Babylonian Creation Melanie Gibson (Gingko Library and negative aspects of working Language of Love (Zaban-e Epic (Lecture) Gösta Gabriel and Gingko Library Art Series). at both projects, and focuses on Eshgh) (Concert) Shahram Nazeri (Göttingen). Organised by: Th e Organised by: Islamic Art Circle the extent to which regional, and Davlatmand Kholov, legends London Centre for the Ancient at SOAS. Chair: Scott Redford national, and global developments of Persian music and Tajik Music Near East with the support of (SOAS). Admission free. Khalili have shaped research agendas. respectively, sing together for the Th riplow Charitable Trust. Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 Admission free. Pre-registration the very fi rst time in London, Part of the Ancient Near East 408 7480 E rosalindhaddon@ required T 020 7323 8181 BP performing Persian, Tajik and Public Lectures Gods of Old: gmail.com W www.soas.ac.uk/art/ Lecture Th eatre, Clore Education Kurdish songs. Th e event is to Th e Mythology of Ancient Iraq. islac/ Centre, BM. T 020 7323 8000 W celebrate the offi cial launch of the Convener: Andrew George www.britishmuseum.org international cultural project Th e (SOAS). Admission free. Alumni 7:00 pm | South Persian Rugs, Language of Love, and to launch Lecture Th eatre, Paul Webley Bags and Saddle Covers (Talk) Shahram Nazeri’s latest album, as Wing (Senate House), SOAS. Paul Benjamin. Organised by: Friday 22 February well as to celebrate International E [email protected] W http:// Oriental Rug and Textile Society, Mother Language Day. Tickets: banealcane.org/lcane/ UK. Th e Paul R Benjamin 6:30 pm | Becoming the Narmer £20-£85. Barbican Hall, Barbican Collection shows the ethnic Palette: A Research Update Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y Tuesday 19 February diversity and inter-mingling of (Lecture) Kathryn Piquette. 8DS. T 020 7638 8891 E tickets@ nomadic tribal and village groups Organised by: Friends of the barbican.org.uk W www.barbican. 5:45 pm | Money, Markets, in the huge area covered by the Petrie Museum. Admission free. org.uk and Monarchies: Th e Gulf Fars and Kerman provinces of Lecture Th eatre G6, Institute Cooperation Council and South-West Persia, that resulted of Archaeology, UCL, 31–34 Tuesday 26 February the Political Economy of the in a remarkable range of designs Gordon Square, London WC1H Contemporary Middle East and use of colour. Tickets: £7/£5 0PY. T 020 7679 2369 E pmf@ 6:30 pm | Sexualities and LGBT (Book Launch) Adam Hanieh students. Membership of one friendsofpetrie.org.uk W www. Activism in the Middle East and (SOAS), Laleh Khalili (SOAS) year for 11 events at £20. Th e ucl.ac.uk/FriendsofPetrie/ North Africa (Panel Discussion) and Sara Salem (LSE). Organised Church Hall Conference Room, Roula Seghaier (Kohl), Cenk by: London Middle East Institute, St James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, 6:30 pm | Special Event: Living Ozbay (Sabanci University), SOAS (LMEI). In Money, Markets, London W1J 9LL. E publicity. Assyria Organised by: BM. Relax Aida Khemiri (Geek and Queer), and Monarchies (Cambridge [email protected] W www. at the bar and enjoy an evening of Mehammed Mack, (Smith University Press, 2018), Hanieh orientalrugandtextilesociety.org. traditional Assyrian folk-music, College). Organised by: LSE examines how the six states of uk activities and games presented Middle East Centre. Admission the Gulf Cooperation Council are by individuals from the UK free. Pre-registration required. powerfully shaping the political Th ursday 21 February Assyrian community. Admission Venue TBC. T 020 7955 7038 economy of the wider Middle free. Great Court and galleries, E [email protected] East. Th e author will be joined by 5:45 pm | Th e Periplus, South BM. T 020 7323 8000 W www. W www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east- Khalili and Salem to launch his Arabia and the Far-side Ports britishmuseum.org centre/ book. Part of the LMEI's Tuesday (Lecture) Carl Phillips. Organised Evening Lecture Programme on by: MBI Al Jaber Foundation 7:30 pm | Nemr: Love Isn’t Th e Wednesday 27 February the Contemporary Middle East. and the British Foundation for Answer (Performance) Lebanese- Admission free. Khalili Lecture the Study of Arabia (BFSA). American stand-up comedian 6:00 pm | Art as a Form of Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 Th roughout the 1990s Phillips Nemr Abou Nassar breaks down Resistance against Settler E [email protected] W www.soas. taught at the UCL Institute of global barriers with the power of Colonial Occupation in Palestine ac.uk/lmei/events/ Archaeology specialising in the laughter at his new show. Nemr and Australia (Lecture) Suzannah Archaeology of pre-Islamic Arabia grew up in San Diego and then Henty. Organised by: Centre 6:30 pm | Th e Traditional Ta’zieh and from 2006 to 2014 was the moved back to Lebanon with for Palestine Studies, SOAS. Mourning Plays of Moharram fi eld director of the archaeological his family. His comedy probes Admission free. Room B103, (Lecture) Lucy Deacon. Organised project focused on the site of the diff erences between his two SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 E vp6@ by: Th e Iran Society. Lucy Deacon Salut. Part of the MBI Al Jaber countries. Tickets: £27.50-£45. soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/ was one of the performers at the Foundation Lecture Series. Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank lmei-cps/events/ Burns- event last December. Admission free. Pre-registration Centre, Belvedere Road, London She has attended a number of required. MBI Al Jaber Seminar SE1 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W Th ursday 28 February performances of ta’zieh in Iran Room, London Middle East www.southbankcentre.co.uk and has also studied a collection of Institute, SOAS, MBI Al Jaber 5:00 pm | A Queer Way Out: Th e ta’zieh scripts held in the Vatican Building, 21 Russell Square, 8:30 pm | Th e Voice of Santur: Politics of Queer Emigration library. Admission free for Society London WC1B 5EA. E info@ Persian & Kurdish Music by from Israel (Book Launch) Hila Members plus one guest. Pall Mall mbifoundation.com W www. Peyman Heydarian and Friends Amit. Organised by: Centre for Room, Th e Army & Navy Club, 36- mbifoundation.com (Concert) Doors open at 8:00pm. Gender Studies, SOAS. In A Queer 39 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JN Tickets: £4 W www.eventbrite. Way Out, Hila Amit explores the (Dress code calls for gentlemen 6.00 pm | Troy and Gordion: co.uk Brunei Gallery Lecture as-yet-untold story of queer Israeli to wear jacket and tie). T 020 An Excavator's Perspective Th eatre, SOAS. E musicevents@ emigrants. Drawing on extensive 7235 5122 E [email protected] on Two Legendary Sites in soas.ac.uk W www.facebook. fi eldwork in Berlin, London,

28 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 CENTRE FOR IRANIAN STUDIES – SCHOLARSHIPS

SOAS, University of London, is pleased to announce the availability of several scholarships in its Centre for Iranian Studies (CIS). The Centre, established in 2010, draws upon the range of academic research and teaching across the disciplines of SOAS, including Languages and Literature, the Study of Religions, History, Economics, Politics, International Relations, Music, Art and Media and Film Studies. It aims to

build close relations with likeminded p 25 . of the School Oriental and African Studies, London, 2007, Treasures institutions and to showcase and foster the best of contemporary Iranian talent in art and culture. MA in Iranian Studies *OCISNFNCFSTTVDDFTTGVMMZ launcIFEBOinterdisciplinary MA in Image: Anvār-i Suhaylī (Lights of the Canopus) Manuscript (Ref: MS10102) from: Anna Contadini (ed.) Objectsof Instruction: Image: Anvār-i Iranian Studies, UIFGJSTUPGJUTLJOE which will be off ered BHBJOJO2018/19. Thanks to the generosity of the Fereydoun Djam Charitable Trust, a number of Kamran Djam scholarships are available for BA, MA and MPhil/PhD studies. MA in Iranian Studies For further details, please contact: Dr Nima Mina (Department of the Languages and Culture of the Middle East) Scholarships Offi cer E: [email protected] E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4315 T: +44 (0)20 7074 5091/ 5094 W: www.soas.ac.uk/nme/programmes/ W: www.soas.ac.uk/scholarships ma-in-iranian-studies Centre for Iranian Studies Student Recruitment Dr Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (Chair) T: +44(0)20 7898 4034 E: [email protected] E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4747 W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 29 and New York, she examines 2:15 pm | Abbas Leadership in and Public Discontent from Centre, Univeristy of Oxford motivations for departure and a State Postponed (Seminar) Nasser to Sadat (Lecture) Relli and Th e Oxford School of Global feelings of unbelonging to Menachem Klein (Bar-Ilan). Shechter (Ben Gurion University and Area Studies. Israeli Studies the Israeli national collective. Organised by: St Antony’s College of the Negev). Organised by: Seminar. See above event listing Admission free. Khalili Lecture Middle East Centre, Univeristy of Department of Middle Eastern on Tuesday 5 February for venue Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4375 Oxford and Th e Oxford School of Studies, University of Cambridge. and contact details. E [email protected] W www.soas. Global and Area Studies. Israeli Admission free. Room 8/9, Faculty ac.uk/genderstudies/events/ Studies Seminar. Convener: of Asian and Middle Eastern Wednesday 20 February Yaacov Yadgar (OSGA/DPIR). Studies, University of Cambridge, Admission free. Th e Board Room, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, 2:00 pm | From Kurdistan to EVENTS OUTSIDE Middle East Centre, St Antony's CB3 9DA. T 01223 335 106 E Europe: Kurdish Literary, LONDON College, University of Oxford, [email protected] W Artistic and Cultural Activism Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 www.ames.cam.ac.uk by KurdisWomen Intellectuals 6JF. T 01865 284780 E mec@sant. (Seminar) Özlem Belçim Galip Friday 1 February ox.ac.uk W www.sant.ox.ac.uk/ Friday 15 February (Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow, research-centres/middle-east- University of Oxford). Organised 5:00 pm | European Policy centre 5:00 pm | Title TBC (Seminar) by: St Antony’s College Middle on the Middle East: Making Abbas Kadhim (Atlantic Council). East Centre, Univeristy of a Diff erence? (Seminar) Nick Friday 8 February Organised by: St Antony’s College Oxford. Women's Rights Research Westcott (SOAS). Organised by: Middle East Centre, Univeristy Seminars. Admission free. Board St Antony’s College Middle East 5:00 pm | Th e Iraq War Inquiry of Oxford. Middle East Centre Room, Kirdar Building, Middle Centre, Univeristy of Oxford – A Study in Contemporary Friday Seminar Series. See above East Centre, St Antony’s College, and the European Studies Centre Political, Diplomatic, Military event listing on Friday 1 February University of Oxford, Woodstock (ESC). Middle East Centre Friday and Reconstruction History for venue and contact details. Road, Oxford OX2 6JF. T 01865 Seminar Series. Admission free. (Seminar) Sir John Chilcot. 284780 E [email protected] W Investcorp Lecture Th eatre, St Organised by: St Antony’s College Tuesday 19 February www.sant.ox.ac.uk/research- Antony's College, University of Middle East Centre, Univeristy centres/middle-east-centre Oxford, Woodstock Road, Oxford of Oxford. Middle East Centre 12:00 pm | Syria and Iraq: a post- OX2 6JF. T 01865 284780 E mec@ Friday Seminar Series. See above ISIL picture (Reading Group) Th ursday 21 February sant.ox.ac.uk W www.sant.ox.ac. event listing on Friday 1 February Forum on Geopolitics: Towards a uk/research-centres/middle-east- for venue and contact details. Westphalia in the Middle East? A 5:15 pm | Struggles for Justice in centre policy approach to understanding the Aft ermath of the Uprisings in Tuesday 12 February the region’s confl icts. Conveners: Tunisia and Egypt (Lecture) Heba 5:30 pm | Solomon‘s Floor of Philipp Hirsch and Patrick Milton. Morayef (). "Glass Like Water“ in Early 2:15 pm | Rising Powers and Tickets: See contact details below. Organised by: Centre of Islamic Islamic Palaces (Lecture) Markus the Arab-Israeli Confl ict since Knox Shaw Room, Sidney Sussex Studies, University of Cambridge. Ritter (University of Vienna). 1947 (Seminar) Guy Burton College, University of Cambridge, Lecture by Morayef, Amnesty Organised by: Th e Cambridge (Vesalius College). Organised Sidney Street, Cambridge CB2 International’s Regional Director Shahnama Centre for Persian by: St Antony’s College Middle 3HU. E [email protected] / for the Middle East and North Studies and sponsored by East Centre, Univeristy of Oxford [email protected] Africa. Admission free. Room Pembroke Shahnameh Centre and Th e Oxford School of Global 8/9, Faculty of Asian and Middle for Persian Studies. Ritter’s talk and Area Studies. Israeli Studies 2:15 pm | Th e Emerging Notion Eastern Studies, University of will discuss visual and material Seminar. See above event listing of Sovereignty in Contemporary Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, evidence as well as textual on Tuesday 5 February for venue Israel (Seminar) Eyal Chowers Cambridge, CB3 9DA. T 01223 sources related to the story of and contact details. (Tel-Aviv). Organised by: St 335 103 E [email protected] W Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Antony’s College Middle East www.ames.cam.ac.uk Admission free. Room N 7, 5:00 pm | Disputes on Alcohol Pembroke College, University of in the Middle East (Panel Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1RF. Discussion) Elife Biçer-Deveci Mashrou’ Leila © Tarek Moukaddem (see March Events, Thursday 7 March, W http://persian.pem.cam.ac.uk/ (St Antony’s College), Philippe p. 31) news-and-events/all Bourmaud (Jean Moulin University Lyon 3) and Nicolas Elias ((French School at Athens). Tuesday 5 February Organised by: St Antony’s College Middle East Centre, Univeristy 12:00 pm | Saudi Arabia and Iran of Oxford. Admission free. in Competition (Reading Group) Investcorp Lecture Th eatre, St Forum on Geopolitics: Towards a Antony's College, University of Westphalia in the Middle East? A Oxford, Woodstock Road, Oxford policy approach to understanding OX2 6JF. T 01865 284780 E mec@ the region’s confl icts. Conveners: sant.ox.ac.uk W www.sant.ox.ac. Philipp Hirsch and Patrick Milton. uk/research-centres/middle-east- Tickets: See contact details below. centre Knox Shaw Room, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, Th ursday 14 February Sidney Street, Cambridge CB2 3HU. E [email protected] / 5:15 pm | Th e Rise of the Egyptian [email protected] Middle Class: Economic Mobility

30 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 Friday 22 February Centre, Univeristy of Oxford MARCH EVENTS Wednesday 6 March and Th e Oxford School of Global 5:00 pm | Title TBC (Seminar) and Area Studies. Israeli Studies 5:00 pm | Archaeology and Heba Morayef (Amnesty Seminar. See above event listing Saturday 2 March Early Islamic Imperialism: Th e International). Organised by: St on Tuesday 5 February for venue View from the West (Seminar) Antony’s College Middle East and contact details. 7:00 pm | DAM (Concert) Corisande Fenwick (UCL). Centre, Univeristy of Oxford. Organised by: Jazz Cafe and Organised by: Institute of Classical Middle East Centre Friday Marsm. Part of DAM's 4-stop UK Studies. Classical Archaeology Seminar Series. See above event Wednesday 27 February tour (see February Events Outside Seminar Series. Admission free. listing on Friday 1 February for London). Tickets: £19.50-£25. Th e Room 349, Th ird Floor, Senate venue and contact details. 7:30 pm | DAM (Concert) Part of Jazz Cafe, 5 Parkway, Camden, House, Malet Street, London DAM's 4-stop UK tour: Th ursday London NW1 7PG. T 020 7485 WC1E 7HU. T 020 7862 8716 E 28 February - Manchester, Friday 6834 W https://thejazzcafelondon. [email protected] W https:// Saturday 23 February 1 March - Birmingham and com / http://marsm.co.uk ics.sas.ac.uk/ Saturday 2 March - London. DAM 9:00 am | Conversation with the began working together in the late Th ursday 7 March Diaspora: Th e Future of South 90s as the fi rst Palestinian hip- Monday 4 March Sudan (Conference) Organised hop crew and among the fi rst to 4:00pm | Th e Tomb of Christ by: St Antony’s College Middle rap in Arabic. Bringing together 6:15 pm | Myth and Magic: in the Church of the Holy East Centre, Univeristy of Oxford a unique combination of Arabic Creating Human Beings in Sepulchre: Problems of and the Sudanese Programme. percussion rhythms, Middle Ancient Mesopotamia (Lecture) Restoration & Investigation in Admission free. Nissan Lecture Eastern melodies and hip hop, Manuel Ceccarelli (Geneva). 2016 (Lecture) Martin Biddle Th eatre, St Antony's College, they have grown to become one Organised by: Th e London (University of Oxford). Organised University of Oxford, Woodstock of the most infl uential acts of the Centre for the Ancient Near East by: Anglo-Israel Archaeological Road, Oxford OX2 6JF. T 01865 Middle East’s urban music scene. with the support of the Th riplow Society jointly with the Palestine 284780 E [email protected] W Tickets: £10. Constellations in Charitable Trust. Part of the Exploration Fund. Admission www.sant.ox.ac.uk/research- Liverpool, 35-39 Greenland Street, Ancient Near East Public Lectures free. Pre-registration required centres/middle-east-centre Liverpool L1 0BS. T 0151 345 6302 Gods of Old: Th e Mythology Of T 020 7323 8181 W www. W http://marsm.co.uk Ancient Iraq. Convener: Andrew britishmuseum.org BP Lecture George (SOAS). Admission free. Th eatre, Clore Education Centre, Monday 25 February Alumni Lecture Th eatre, Paul BM. T 020 8349 5754 / 020 7935 Th ursday 28 February Webley Wing (Senate House), 5379 E [email protected] / 5:00 pm | Women and Social SOAS. E [email protected] W http:// [email protected] W www.aias. Change in North Africa: What 5:00 pm | Revolution in Iran banealcane.org/lcane/ org.uk / www.pef.org.uk Counts as Revolutionary? (Book 1978-1979: Assessments and Launch and Panel Discussion) Reassessments upon the Fortieth 5:30 pm | Refl exes of al-Andalus: Imane Chaara (QEH Oxford), Anniversary (Panel Discussion) Tuesday 5 March Islamic glass in the Iberian Doris Gray (Al Akhawayn Touraj Atabaki (International Peninsula (Seminar) Jorge de University) and Nadia Sonneveld Institute of Social History, 5:30 pm | Human Rights in the Juan. SOAS Research Seminars (Radboud University). Organised Amsterdam), Stephanie Cronin MENA Region: Challenges and in Islamic Art. Convener: Anna by: St Antony’s College Middle (University of Oxford) and Siavush Opportunities (Panel Discussion) Contadini (SOAS). Admission East Centre, Univeristy of Oxford. Ranjbar Daemi (University of Mishana Hosseinioun (University free. Room B102, SOAS. E tt30@ Admission free. Investcorp St Andrews). Organised by: St of Oxford), Moataz El Fegiery soas.ac.uk Lecture Th eatre, St Antony's Antony’s College Middle East (Front Line Defenders), Melek College, University of Oxford, Centre, Univeristy of Oxford. Saral (SOAS). Organised by: 7:00 pm | Mashrou’ Leila Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 Admission free. Nissan Lecture London Middle East Institute, (Concert) Formed during a late 6JF. T 01865 284780 E mec@sant. Th eatre, St Antony's College, SOAS (LMEI), SOAS Centre of night jam session at the American ox.ac.uk W www.sant.ox.ac.uk/ University of Oxford, Woodstock African Studies and the SOAS University of Beirut in 2008, the research-centres/middle-east- Road, Oxford OX2 6JF. T 01865 School of Law. Severe human fi ve-strong group have become centre 284780 E [email protected] W rights violations have been central one of the biggest bands to hail www.sant.ox.ac.uk/research- to the uprisings in the MENA from the Middle East, renowned 5:30 pm | Th e Hijaz: Th e First centres/middle-east-centre region in 2011. Aft er seven years, for their politically charged Islamic State (Book Launch) questions of how the uprisings electro-pop anthems about LGBT Malik Dahlan. Forum on 5:15 pm | Th e Classical Arabic impacted human rights in the rights, race, religion and modern Geopolitics. Admission free. Hunting Poem (Lecture) James region remain. Th e panel will Arabic identity. Tickets: £25-£30. Peterhouse Th eatre, Trumpington Montgomery (University of address human rights issue in Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, Street, Cambridge CB2 1RD. E Cambridge). Organised by: the region, from a perspective London, NW1 8EH. T 0300 6789 [email protected] Department of Middle Eastern of opportunities and challenges. 222 W www.roundhouse.org.uk Studies, University of Cambridge. Convener: Melek Saral (SOAS). Admission free. Room 8/9, Faculty Chair: Mashood Baderin (SOAS) Friday 8 March Tuesday 26 February of Asian and Middle Eastern Part of the LMEI's Tuesday Studies, University of Cambridge, Evening Lecture Programme on 12:00 pm | Religion in Diaspora: 2:15 pm | Identity, Confl ict Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, the Contemporary Middle East. Th e Transformations of Yazidism perception and Reconciliation CB3 9DA. T 01223 335 106 E Admission free. Khalili Lecture in Europe since 1985 (Seminar) in the shadow of the Arab- [email protected] W Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 Banu Yalkut-Breddermann Israeli confl ict (Seminar) Ibrahim www.ames.cam.ac.uk E [email protected] W www.soas. (Independent Filmmaker and Khatib (Oxford). Organised by: ac.uk/lmei/events/ Researcher, Berlin). Organised St Antony’s College Middle East by: SOAS Modern Turkish Studies

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 31 Programme (London Middle East practice" measurement (only used Organised by: Department Tblisi, Georgia). Organised by: Institute) and sponsored by Nurol in Th ird World countries). Chair: of Religions & Philosophies, Islamic Art Circle at SOAS. Th e Bank. Admission free. MBI Al Dina Matar (SOAS). Admission School of History, Religions & Eighth Bahari Foundation Lecture Jaber Seminar Room, London free. Brunei Gallery Lecture Philosophies, SOAS. Th e use of in Iranian Art and Culture. Middle East Institute, SOAS, Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 oral testimony as a research tool Chair: Scott Redford (SOAS). MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell E [email protected] W www.soas. in the study of Zoroastrianism Admission free. Khalili Lecture Square, London WC1B 5EA. E ac.uk/lmei-cps/events/ raises questions as to how the Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 408 7480 [email protected] / gm29@soas. living faith has been interpreted E [email protected] W ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ Saturday 9 March in the past and its relationship www.soas.ac.uk/art/islac/ events/ to a textual tradition that was in 7:30 pm | A Musical Celebration oral transmission for centuries Th ursday 14 March 7:00 pm | Unpacking Palestine’s of Nowruz at SOAS: Persian, aft er the religion entered recorded ‘Gender Violence Problem’: Kurdish and Azari Music history. Methodologies employed 5:30 pm | A new look at the so- Global Governmentality and (Concert) Organised by: Peyman to answer such questions will be called ‘Samarra pottery horizon’ the Antimonies of the Global Heydarian and the the SOAS discussed here with reference to in the light of the Samarra Violence Against Women Iranian Music Society. Tickets: two recent studies carried out Digitization project (Seminar) Agenda in Occupied Palestine £25/£15 conc./£10 students. DLT, in India and Iran respectively. Rosalind Wade Haddon. SOAS (Lecture) Rema Hammami SOAS. E events.santur@yahoo. Admission free. Room TBC, Paul Research Seminars in Islamic (Institute of Women's Studies, com W www.facebook.com/ Webley Wing (Senate House), Art. Convener: Anna Contadini Birzeit University, Ramallah). events/2228139834179998/ / SOAS. E [email protected] W (SOAS). Admission free. Room Centre for Palestine Studies www.thesantur.com www.soas.ac.uk/religions-and- B102, SOAS. E [email protected] Annual Lecture. Hammami philosophies/events/ discusses how global actors, Wednesday 13 March Friday 15 March including the aid industry, have 7:00 pm | Qajar Art in the produced domestic violence as a 3:00 pm | Text and Testimony Georgian National Museums, 7:30 pm | Dhafer Youssef huge and ever growing problem in in the Zorastrian Tradition Tbilisi (Lecture) Irina Koshoridze (Concert) Join singer and oud Palestine -- through forms of "best (Seminar) Sarah Stewart (SOAS). (Georgia National Museum, player Dhafer Youssef on a sonic

THE GREAT BETRAYAL How America Abandoned the and Lost the Middle East David L. Phillips

The twentieth century saw dramatic changes in the once Kurd- dominated Kirkuk region of Iraq. Despite having repeatedly relied on the Kurdish population of Iraq for military support, on three occasions the United States have abandoned their supposed allies in Kirkuk.

The Great Betrayal provides a political and diplomatic history of the Kirkuk region and its international relations from the 1920s to the present day. Based on first-hand interviews and previously unseen sources, it provides an accessible account of a region at the very heart of America’s foreign policy priorities in the Middle East, and reveals the devastating effects of betraying an ally. HB | Dec 2018 £20 | 9781788313971 “A must read for those who want to 256 pgs | 216 x 138 mm understand why the Kurds play such a www.ibtauris.com key role in that future of Middle East” - Bernard Kouchner

32 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 expedition, taking in Tunisian less-than-human populations, Sunday 24 March (CBRL). See above event listing for tradition and contemporary jazz is used by the state of Israel in details. as he presents his new album racializing and ruling the citizens 7:45 pm | Navay Bahar: Persian Sounds of Mirrors, which features of occupied Palestine. Part of the Spring (Concert) Mark the arrival Friday 29 March French-Indian percussionist LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture of spring and the ancient Persian Stéphane Edouard, meditative Programme on the Contemporary New Year, Nowruz, with singer 10:30 pm | Concrete Lates: Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset Middle East. Admission free. Sara Hamidi and the Mahbanoo Fatima Al Qadiri Live & Aïsha and Turkish clarinetist Hüsnü Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T Ensemble, directed by Maestro Devi (Performance) Immerse Senlendirici. Tickets: £20-£40. 020 7898 4330 E [email protected] Majid Derakhshani. Established yourself in sound at a late-night Royal Festival Hall, Southbank W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ in 2010 by accomplished Iranian Re-Textured Festival event Centre, Belvedere Road, London composer and instrumentalist headlined by Fatima Al Qadiri, SE1 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W 7:30 pm | Converging Paths: Maestro Majid Derakhshani, plus a transcendental set from www.southbankcentre.co.uk Joseph Tawadros - Th e Art of Mahbanoo Ensemble soon Aïsha Devi. Tickets: £12.50. the Oud (Concert) Organised became one of the most prominent Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank 8:00 pm | Anouar Brahem: Blue by: Asia House and Th e Barakat ensembles in the Persian music Centre, Belvedere Road, London Maqams with Dave Holland, Trust in partnership with Th e scene. Th e ensemble stopped SE1 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W Django Bates, Nasheet Waits Arab British Centre. Traditional performing and recording in 2015, www.southbankcentre.co.uk (Concert) Experience the music of Arabic music meets jazz and making this performance a long- the Tunisian composer and master classical with Joseph Tawadros, awaited reunion. Tickets: £20-£30. 6:30 pm | Encounters with of the oud, in a rare performance world-renowned oud player and Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, Egyptian mummies at the drawing together his insight into composer, in this celebration of Belvedere Road, London SE1 Louvre (Lecture) Angela Stienne. Arab music alongside a broader the oud—the ancient Middle- 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W www. Organised by: Friends of the musical spectrum.Tickets: £20- Eastern lute. Part of the series southbankcentre.co.uk Petrie Museum. Admission free. £30. Barbican Hall, Barbican Converging Paths. Tickets: £12– Lecture Th eatre G6, Institute Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y £28. W www.eventbrite.com Asia Wednesday 27 March of Archaeology, UCL, 31–34 8DS. T 020 7638 8891 E tickets@ House, 63 New Cavendish Street, Gordon Square, London WC1H barbican.org.uk W www.barbican. London W1G 7LP. T 020 7307 9:30 am | Th e Egyptian 0PY. T 020 7679 2369 E pmf@ org.uk 5454 E [email protected] W Revolution of 1919: Th e Birth friendsofpetrie.org.uk W www. https://asiahouse.org/ of the Modern Nation (Two- ucl.ac.uk/FriendsofPetrie/ Monday 18 March Day Conference: Wednesday 27 – Th ursday 28 March) Organised 6:15 pm | What is Mesopotamian Wednesday 20 March by: Th e British Egyptian Society, EVENTS OUTSIDE Mythology? And How to the London Middle East Institute, LONDON Understand it (Lecture) Annette 7:00 pm | Cypriot Embroideries SOAS (LMEI) and the Council Zgoll (Göttingen). Organised and Textiles (Talk) Mary Spyrou. for British Research in the by: Th e London Centre for Organised by: Oriental Rug and Levant (CBRL). Th e Egyptian Friday 1 March the Ancient Near East with Textile Society, UK. Spyrou looks independence movement in the support of the Th riplow at Cypriot textiles - techniques, 1919 led to the recognition of 5:00 pm | Lebanon and the Charitable Trust. Part of the materials, patterns and uses, Egyptian sovereignty in 1922, an Twenty-First Century: Populism, Ancient Near East Public Lectures plus the importance of dowry Egyptian constitution in 1923, Neoliberalism, and Th eir Gods of Old: Th e Mythology Of textiles. Tickets: £7/£5 students. and Saad Zaghloul’s appointment Discontents (Seminar) Andrew Ancient Iraq. Convener: Andrew Membership of one year for as the fi rst prime minister of a Arsan (University of Cambridge). George (SOAS). Admission free. 11 events at £20. Th e Church government elected by suff rage in Organised by: St Antony’s College Alumni Lecture Th eatre, Paul Hall Conference Room, St 1924. Th e conference will seek to Middle East Centre, Univeristy Webley Wing (Senate House), James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, throw new light on the events of of Oxford. Middle East Centre SOAS. E [email protected] W http:// London W1J 9LL. E publicity. 1919 and their impact on Egypt, Friday Seminar Series. Admission banealcane.org/lcane/ [email protected] W www. Sudan, Britain, and the wider free. Investcorp Lecture Th eatre, orientalrugandtextilesociety.org. world. Tickets: £10 Standard/£5 St Antony's College, University of uk students. (registration fee covers Oxford, Woodstock Road, Oxford Tuesday 19 March both days of the conference and OX2 6JF. T 01865 284780 E mec@ includes lunch and refreshments). sant.ox.ac.uk W www.sant.ox.ac. 5:45 pm | Traces of Racial Friday 22 March Pre-registration required. Brunei uk/research-centres/middle-east- Exception: Racializing the Israeli Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. centre Settler Colony (Book Launch) 7:45 pm | Bedouine (Concert) T 020 7898 4330 E secretary@ Ronit Lentin (Trinity College Bedouine brings her SoCal canyon britishegyptiansociety.org.uk W Dublin) and Haim Bresheeth folk sound to Southbank Centre. www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ Sunday 3 March (SOAS). Organised by: London Bedouine, taken from the word Middle East Institute, SOAS Bedouin, is the name Azniv Th ursday 28 March 7:00 pm | Nowruz Concert - (LMEI) and Centre for Palestine Korkejian chose to encompass Oxford Organised by: Peyman Studies, SOAS. Event to mark her nomadic experiences. Born 9:00 am | Th e Egyptian Heydarian and the Voice of the publication of Lentin's latest in Aleppo, Syria, to Armenian Revolution of 1919: Th e Birth Santur. Doors open at 6:30pm. book Traces of Racial Exception: parents, she spent her childhood of the Modern Nation (Two- Tickets: £15/£10 conc./£6 Racializing the Israeli Settler in Saudi Arabia before moving to Day Conference: Wednesday 27 students. Holywell Music Room, Colony. Positioning race front America with her family. Tickets: – Th ursday 28 March) Organised Holywell Street, Oxford OX1 and centre, Lentin theorizes that £15. Purcell Room, Southbank by: Th e British Egyptian Society, 1DB. E events.santur@yahoo. political violence, in the form Centre, Belvedere Road, London the London Middle East Institute, com W www.facebook.com/ of a socio-political process that SE1 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W SOAS (LMEI) and the Council events/2270768956525482/ / diff erentiates between human and www.southbankcentre.co.uk for British Research in the Levant www.thesantur.com

February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 33 Monday 4 March (Oxford). Tickets: See contact collection of Assyrian treasures Friday 8 February details below. Th e Senior Parlour, and rare loans and come face to 5:00 pm | Fear and Politics in Gonville and Caius College, face with one of history’s greatest Until 6 May | Anna Boghiguian Divided Societies: Assessing University of Cambridge, Trinity forgotten kings. Tickets: Various. Th e fi rst retrospective in the the Foundations of Political Street, Cambridge CB2 1TA. E BM. T 020 7323 8181 E tickets@ UK of the Egyptian-Canadian Behaviour in Lebanon (Lecture) [email protected] britishmuseum.org W www. artist of Armenian origin, Anna Melani Cammett (Harvard). britishmuseum.org Boghiguian (Cairo, 1946). Admission free. Sainsbury Wing, 5:15 pm | Th inking about Informed by her interest in Judge Business School, University Tankers: Labour, Port-Making, Until 24 February | Artes Mundi philosophy and her continuous of Cambridge, Trumpington and Capitalism (Talk) Laleh 8 Th e shortlist for Artes Mundi travels, Boghiguian's work Street, Cambridge, CB2 1AG. E Khalili (SOAS). Organised 8 brings together 5 international comments on the human condition [email protected] by: Centre of Islamic Studies, contemporary artists who directly through the perspectives of global University of Cambridge. Room engage with everyday life through trade, mass migration, colonialism Tuesday 5 March 8/9, Faculty of Asian and Middle their practice and who explore and war. Tickets: £9.50/£8.50 conc. Eastern Studies, University of contemporary social issues across Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St 12:00 pm | Jordan and Lebanon: Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, the globe. Th is year's shortlist Ives, Cornwall TR26 1TG. T 01736 Th e Weak Do As Th ey Must? Cambridge, CB3 9DA. T 01223 includes Anna Boghiguian 796 226 E [email protected]. (Reading Group) Forum on 335 103 E [email protected] W (/Egypt), Bouchra Khalili uk W www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate- Geopolitics: Towards a Westphalia www.ames.cam.ac.uk (Morocco/France), Otobong st-ives in the Middle East? A policy Nkanga (Nigeria/Belgium), Trevor approach to understanding the Friday 8 March Paglen (USA) and Apichatpong Wednesday 20 March region’s confl icts. Conveners: Weerasethakul (Th ailand). Philipp Hirsch and Patrick Milton. 5:00 pm | Inside Tunisia’s al- Admission free. National Museum Until 14 September | Th e Mosaic Tickets: See contact details below. Nahda: Between Politics and Cardiff , Cathays Park, Cardiff Rooms 10 Years: Modern Masters Knox Shaw Room, Sidney Sussex Preaching (Seminar) Rory CF10 3NP. T 0300 7777 300 W and Contemporary Culture from College, University of Cambridge, McCarthy (Magdalen College, www.artesmundi.org the Arab World and Iran To Sidney Street, Cambridge CB2 Oxford). Organised by: St Antony’s celebrate its tenth anniversary, 3HU. E [email protected] / College Middle East Centre, Until 30 March | When Legacies Th e Mosaic Rooms presents a [email protected] Univeristy of Oxford. Middle East Become Debts Exhibition programme of exhibitions and Centre Friday Seminar Series. See contemplating the personal and events running from spring 2018 2:15 pm | Quality of Life and Well- above event listing Friday 1 March collective forms of reliance and to autumn 2019. Th e programme being in Israel Today (Seminar) for venue and contact details. liability experienced between of six exhibitions has two parts, a Avner Off er (Oxford). Organised diff erent generations of artists series of seminal Arab and Iranian by: St Antony’s College Middle Wednesday 13 March and writers in the Iranian context. modernist artists from Egypt, Iran East Centre, Univeristy of Oxford Curated by Azar Mahmoudian the and Morocco curated by Morad and Th e Oxford School of Global 5:00 pm | Attempts at Imitations: exhibition features commissioned Montazami and a series of group and Area Studies. Israeli Studies Byzantine and Islamic Army and works by Ali Meer Azimi, shows presenting contemporary Seminar. Convener: Yaacov Administration (Seminar) Marie Bahar Noorizadeh and Mahan art from these three countries. Yadgar (OSGA/DPIR). Admission Legendre (Edinburgh). Organised Moalemi, recent projects by Tickets: See contact details below. free. Th e Board Room, Middle by: CRASSH. Part of Byzantine Hadi Fallahpisheh and Shirin Th e Mosaic Rooms, A.M. Qattan East Centre, St Antony's College, Worlds Research Network Series. Sabahi, and in-process researches Foundation, Tower House, 226 University of Oxford, Woodstock Admission free. Seminar Room by Hannah Darabi, Ronak Cromwell Road, London SW5 Road, Oxford OX2 6JF. T 01865 SG2, Alison Richard Building, Moshtaghi, and Hamed Yousefi 0SW. T 020 7370 9990 E info@ 284780 E [email protected] W University of Cambridge, 7 West (with Ali Mirsepassi). Admission mosaicrooms.org W https:// www.sant.ox.ac.uk/research- Road, Cambridge CB3 9DT. E free. Th e Mosaic Rooms, A.M. mosaicrooms.org centres/middle-east-centre [email protected] W Qattan Foundation, Tower House, www.crassh.cam.ac.uk 226 Cromwell Road, London SW5 5:00 pm | Iran and Sanctions 0SW. T 020 7370 9990 E info@ (Lecture) Zep Kalb (UCLA) and mosaicrooms.org W https:// James Landale (BBC). Organised EXHIBITIONS mosaicrooms.org by: St Antony’s College Middle East Centre, Univeristy of Oxford. Until 31 March | MAC Admission free. Investcorp Until 24 February | I am International 2018 MAC Lecture Th eatre, St Antony's Ashurbanipal: king of the International provides a global College, University of Oxford, world, king of Assyria King perspective on contemporary art Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 Ashurbanipal of Assyria (r. 669–c. and presents a snapshot of some 6JF. T 01865 284780 E mec@sant. 631 BC) was the most powerful of the voices in contemporary ox.ac.uk W www.sant.ox.ac.uk/ man on earth. He described practice operating in our world research-centres/middle-east- himself in inscriptions as ‘king of today. Chosen from more than 800 centre the world’, and his reign from the submissions, this year's shortlist city of Nineveh (now in northern includes artists from Ireland, Th ursday 7 March Iraq) marked the high point , Romania, Hungary, Croatia of the Assyrian empire, which Austria, France, Turkey, Palestine, 1:00 pm | Garden Stories and stretched from the shores of the USA and Canada. Admission free. Literary Networks in Sixteenth- eastern Mediterranean to the MAC, 10 Exchange Street West, Century Istanbul (Reading mountains of western Iran. Th is Belfast BT1 2NJ. T 028 9023 5053 Group) Cambridge Middle East major exhibition tells the story of W https://themaclive.com/ History Group. Asli Niyazioglu Ashurbanipal through the BM's

34 The Middle East in London February – March 2019 Photograph © Iselin-Shaw

NEW MA PALESTINE STUDIES Ŕ Develop an understanding of the complexities of modern and contemporary Palestine

Ŕ Explore history, political structure, development, culture and society

Ŕ Obtain a multi-disciplinary overview

Ŕ Enrol on a flexible, inter-disciplinary study programme For further details, please contact: Dr Adam Hanieh E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk February – March 2019 The Middle East in London 35 Kamran Djam Annual Lectures at SOAS 5 and 6 February 2019 Centre for Iranian Studies, London Middle East Ins tute Seventy Years in the Social History of the Iranian Oil Industry (1908-1978): Labour and Beyond

Professor Touraj Atabaki, Interna onal Ins tute of Social History, Amsterdam

Lecture One: The Development Years 5.30pm, Tuesday 5 February 2019, Khalili Lecture Theatre Lecture Two: The Years of Confronta ons 7.00pm, Wednesday 6 February, Djam Lecture Theatre (DLT) Preceded by a public recep on at 6.00pm, The Cloister, Paul Webley Wing (Senate House North Block)

SOAS University of London, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Admission Free - All Welcome

Enquiries Tel. No. 020 7898 4330 E-mail [email protected] Website www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/events/ 36 The Middle East in London February – March 2019