New Iranian Cinema” of the 1990S

Gold in the Jungle: The Role of the French in Popularizing the “New Iranian Cinema” of the 1990s The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Samimi, Nima. 2018. Gold in the Jungle: The Role of the French in Popularizing the “New Iranian Cinema” of the 1990s. Master's thesis, Harvard Extension School. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42004053 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Gold in the Jungle: The Role of the French in Popularizing the “New Iranian Cinema” of the 1990s Nima Samimi A Thesis in the Field of Middle Eastern Studies for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Harvard University November 2018 © 2018 Nima Samimi Abstract This study investigates the role of the French in popularizing the “new Iranian cinema” of the 1990s and looks critically at the nature of the post-colonial relationship between Iran and France. Did France play the key role in exposing the world to Iranian cinema? Were their motivations opportunistic, profiting the French at the expense of Iran’s film industry? Was it also crucial to the success of the “New Iranian Cinema”? Established discourses on “postal cinema” (Iranian cinema after the 1979 revolution), globalization, national cinema theory, post-colonialism and modern mediaworks provide us with a nuanced view of the relationship between Iranian filmmakers, French production houses, the Iranian government, international film festivals and Hollywood. The success of the new Iranian cinema was in some ways a reaction to the racism and Islamophobia that was heightened after the Islamic revolution, an alternate means of diplomacy between Iran and its former “Western allies, whereby the smallness and intimacy of Iranian art films revealed the humanity of Iranian people as an alternative to their almost universal “Western portrayal as barbaric Islamic fundamentalists. The investigation concludes that the complex negotiations of progress and post- colonialism resulted in an upward trend for Iranian cinema, ending its 1990s boom cycle only to transform into a diverse, transnational medium – both in spite of French involvement and because of it. For AG, DT and RGS. Without your love and encouragement, I would never have had this opportunity. iv Acknowledgements This paper is the culmination of almost nine years of work – a sprawling educational odyssey that took me across West Asia without leaving Massachusetts. I was able to persist in the face of many challenges, thanks to a multitude of people who greeted my efforts with warmth, patience and generosity. Don Ostrowski’s genuine interest in my topic provided the encouragement I needed to believe in the project and he has been a thoughtful and invested research advisor from the start. Similarly, a first meeting over tea at Café Algiers made it clear that Sheida Dayani respected my intelligence and would treat me as a peer, in spite of her substantially more impressive abilities and accomplishments. In the middle of thesis writing I suffered a concussion (I am grateful to the ALM department for granting me an extension) and this meant that Sheida has been on the hook as my thesis director for longer than she had intended. Words cannot express how much I appreciate her sticking with me, in spite of the fact that she is concurrently writing a dissertation of her own. Huge thanks also to Kamran Rastegar at Tuffs, who played a pivotal role in helping me formulate the scope of this paper, and to Paul Beran, who introduced me to Kamran, after inspiring me with his class on Israel and Palestine. My managers at the Arnold Arboretum have been patient and understanding when thesis work caused last minute absences – thank you Andrew Gapinski, Rachel Brinkman and Steve Schneider. Thanks to Elizabeth Saunders and Andy Hutcheson, who went out of their way to help me keep my life as a working parent from falling off the rails while I did thesis work on v nights and weekends. Shani Fletcher, Jess Liborio, Katie Goldring, and Rudy Nickens all convinced me to stay the course on the many occasions that I began to consider throwing in the towel – I’m lucky to have such good friends. Lastly, thanks to my family for an immeasurable amount of generosity and patience. My mother, Denise, did childcare, sent food, shared her thoughts on my subject (which were always relevant and useful) and always had words of enthusiasm and encouragement. My son, Rostam, was patient and understanding about my reduced availability, even when he did not like it. And my wife, Amanda, took on extra parenting, extra errands, and bared the brunt of my excess irritation, due to my heavy work load, in spite of a heavy work load of her own. She was also the one who made me believe that I could and would see this project to fruition. I owe you all an enormous debt of gratitude. Thank you. vi Table of Contents Dedication………………………………………………………………….…………… iv Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….….. v List of Figures and Tables…………………………….…………………………....….. vii I. Origins and Context of Iranian Cinema………………………………….……… 1 Introduction………………………………………………………….…………... 1 A Brief History of Iranian Cinema……………………………………………… 6 Why Iranian Cinema Matters……………………………………………...…….. 9 Diplomacy……………………………………………………………………..... 11 The Effects of Racism and Islamophobia on Iranian Cinema………………….. 13 The Problem with “Iranian National Cinema” ……………………………...…. 19 The Absence of Comedy…………………………………………..………..….. 29 II. The Role of the French………………………………………………………… 33 Origins of Franco-Iranian Relations…………………………………………… 33 Abbas Kiarostami: French Cinéastes and Iranian Cinema………….…………. 36 Financing the New Iranian Cinema………..………..…………….…… 43 The Case of Blumhouse Productions………..…………………….…… 46 III. Epilogue: Iranian Cinema in the Internet Age………..………...……...….…… 48 File Sharing and Streaming: Iranian Cinema in the New Millennium………… 48 Conclusion………..…………………………………………………....….…… 54 Bibliography………..…………………..……………………………...….…… 57 vii List of Figures and Tables Fig. 1 London Iranian Film Festival Poster……………………………………. 2 Fig. 2 Movie Poster for “Setareh Forouzan” (Shining Star, Iran, 1969)……….. 7 Fig. 3 Movie Poster for “Not without My Daughter” (USA, 1991)………..… 17 Table 1. MK2 produced Iranian films, 1995-2004………………...…...……….. 45 Fig. 3 Iraniantorrents.com homepage screengrab….…………..……...……… 50 viii Chapter I Origins and Context of Iranian Cinema Iranian cinema enjoyed a decade of unprecedented international popularity, beginning with the appearance of Abbas Kiarostami’s A Taste of Cherry in the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. That year, in spite of the Iranian government’s attempt to block the film’s entry into the festival,1 A Taste of Cherry went on to win the prestigious Palme d’Or prize. International screen appearances of Iranian films shot from 35 in 1988, to 377 in 1990, to an all-time high of 849 in 1999.2 Introduction Iran’s film industry has experienced numerous changes from the introduction of the first film camera in 1900, to the first fiction film in 1930, to the first “talkie” in 1933, to the birth of the first internationally celebrated films in 1969, known as Iranian “new wave” cinema.3 After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the film industry took a decidedly different direction. It was a surprise to international film critics and foreign governments 1 Agnès Devictor, “Classic Tools, Original Goals: Cinema and Public Policy in the Islamic Republic of Iran (1979-97),” in The New Iranian Cinema: Politics, Representation and Identity, ed. Richard Tapper (London: I. B. Tauris, 2002), 74. 2 Hamid Naficy, “Islamizing Film Culture in Iran Post-Khatami Update,” in The New Iranian Cinema: Politics, Representation and Identity, ed. Richard Tapper (London: I. B. Tauris, 2002), 53. 3 Richard Tapper, from the “Introduction” in The New Iranian Cinema: Politics, Representation and Identity, ed. Richard Tapper (London: I. B. Tauris, 2002), 3. 1 alike that only ten years after Khomeini took power, Iranian cinema had elevated itself to become one of the most celebrated cinemas of the world, in spite of the strenuous censorship present in the Islamic Republic. This “new Iranian cinema” owed its success to many sources; the scores of filmmakers who paved the way in previous decades, the innovation of young contemporary directors, the ascension of moderate cleric (and future Iranian president) Mohammad Khatami to the position of minister of culture (he would build a symbiotic relationship with the burgeoning film industry) – but also to the warm reception it received in the West, starting in the late 1980s. Western film critics would praise the new Iranian Cinema. Western festivals (figure 1) would host Iranian films in record numbers and Western production companies would offer financing in times of economic hardship. Fig. 1. London Iranian Film Festival. by Beth Post, 2010, Beth Post Design. Retrieved July 4, 2018, from http://www.bethpostdesign.com/london-iranian-film-festival/. Copyright 2010 by Beth Post. 2 Ignited by the impressive reception of A Taste of Cherry at Cannes, the French film industry took a particular interest in the new Iranian cinema. By the middle of the decade, production companies like MK2 (“Marin Kamish Deux”) pioneered these kinds of relationships with Iranian

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