In New Iranian Cinema
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UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA STUDIES MASTER THESIS RETHINKING THE ’TYPICAL’ IN NEW IRANIAN CINEMA A STUDY ON (FEMALE) REPRESENTATION AND LOCATION IN JAFAR PANAHI’S WORK Master in Film and Media Studies Thesis supervisor: Dr. Gerwin van der Pol 2nd reader: Dr. Emiel Martens Date of Completion: 20th May 2019 i ABSTRACT Contemporary Iranian cinema has been acknowledged and praised by film critics, festivals and audiences worldwide. The recent international acclaim that Iranian films have received since the late 1980s, and particularly through the 1990s, show the significance that the films’ exhibition and reception outside Iran has played in the transformation of cinema in Iran, developing certain themes and aesthetics that have become known to be ‘typical’ Iranian and that are the focus of this paper. This survey explores Iranian film culture through the lens of Jafar Panahi and the poetics of his work. Panahi’ films, in past and present, have won numerous prizes within the international festival circuit and have been interpreted by audiences and critics around the world. Although officially banned from his profession since 2010, the Iranian filmmaker has found its ‘own’ creative ways to circumvent the limitations of censorship and express its nation’s social and political issues on screen. After providing a brief historical framework of the history of Iranian cinema since the 1990s, the survey will look at Panahi’s work within two categories. Panahi’s first three feature films will be explored under the aspects of Iranian children’s films, self-reflexivity and female representation(s). With regards to Panahi’s ‘exilic’ position and his current ban on filmmaking, the survey will analyze one of Panahi’s recent self-portrait works to exemplify the filmmaker use of ‘accented’ characteristics in terms of authorship and the meaning of location (open and closed spaces). The final component of this paper will be dedicated to the reception of Iranian films, in Iran and abroad. Based on Panahi’s position within the international festival circuit and his award-winning films, the last chapter will also shed light on the role that film festivals have played in providing filmmakers - such as Panahi - with a (political) platform for their films to become seen and promoted worldwide; therefore, encouraging particular film styles and directors while excluding others. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... ii CHAPTER I Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Research Question and Aim of the Survey ............................................................................. 2 Chapter Breakdown and Methodology .................................................................................. 3 Literature Review and Limitations of the Survey .................................................................. 6 Historical Framework ............................................................................................................. 7 CHAPTER II ZOOM-IN: New Iranian Cinema through the Lens of Jafar Panahi ............. 10 The Early Phases/ Faces of Panahi`s Cinema: A Trilogy of Female Representation(s) ....... 10 THE WHITE BALLOON (Badkonak-e sefid; 1995, Jafar Panahi, Iran, 85 minutes) ..... 10 The Image of Children – Iranian Children’s Films .......................................................... 11 THE MIRROR (Ayeneh, 1997, Jafar Panahi, Iran, 90 minutes) ...................................... 18 Reflexive Cinema – Breaking through the “Fourth Wall” ............................................... 22 THE CIRCLE (Dayereh, 2000, Jafar Panahi, Iran, 91 minutes) ...................................... 25 Women’s Representation in Iranian Cinema .................................................................... 28 The Urban Experience of the Female ‘Flâneuse’ ............................................................. 31 Remarks on Panahi’s Trilogy ............................................................................................... 33 CHAPTER III The Evolving Phases of Panahi’s Cinema- The Aesthetics of Censorship .. 38 THIS IS NOT A FILM (In Film Nist, 2011, Jafar Panahi, Iran, 75 minutes) ................... 38 Hamid Naficy’s An Accented Cinema and the Meaning of Location .............................. 42 CHAPTER IV ZOOM-OUT: New Iranian Cinema and the International Festival Circuit . 47 The Rise of the Iranian New Wave – An Overview ............................................................. 48 Reception of Iranian Films: The ‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ View ............................................. 51 Politics and Festivals – Censorship sells? ............................................................................ 54 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................................ 58 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 60 iii CHAPTER I Introduction At the outset of my thesis, I want to clarify that my approach to Iranian cinema is still that of an outsider: perceived and acknowledged from the foreign perspective of ‘the other’. Nevertheless, as a scholar in film studies and a passionate festival visitor, in the past years I became particularly interested in the films of the new or to lean on Azadeh Farahmand`s terminology ‘recent’ Iranian cinema, associated with the generation of Iranian filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Jafar Panahi. As a subcategory of the post-revolutionary Iranian cinema, ‘recent’ Iranian cinema refers to films that, reflecting its nation`s social and political concerns, have gained special recognition and visibility first in Europe and particularly on the international (Festival) map since the late 1980`s (Farahmand in Tapper 2002: 87). My own experience with Iranian cinema, and Jafar Panahi, began in 2011 while I was doing an internship in the section Generation of the International Film Festival in Berlin (Berlinale). Jafar Panahi, who was invited to take part in the International Jury in 2011, was refused permission to travel to the festival as he was still under house arrest and not permitted to leave his country for alleged propaganda against the Islamic Republic` (61st Berlin Film Festival Catalogue 2011: 382). As a sign of the festival`s solidarity with Panahi, the different sections of the Berlinale screened five of his films in retrospective: Badkonak-e Sefid (The White Balloon, 1995), which received the Palme d’Or in Cannes, Dayereh (The Circle, 2000), winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 and Talaye sorkh (Crimson Gold, 2003), for which Panahi received the Un Certain Regard Jury Award in Cannes 2003. In 2006 and 2013, the Berlinale rewarded both of Panahi`s films, Offside (Offside, 2006) and Pardé (Closed Curtain, 2013) with the Silver Bear for Best Script. Following his tradition with the Berlinale since then, it came as no surprise to me that in 2015 Panahi`s film Taxi (Taxi Tehran) was scheduled to premiere in competition at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival - winning the Golden Bear for best film that same year. But when the Berlinale film festival award, the Golden Bear, was handed out for Taxi Tehran (2015), its winner was not there to accept it. Not because he wasn`t invited or didn`t want to come, but simply because he couldn`t. As punishment for his criticism of the Iranian government, in 2010 Jafar Panahi was given a six-year prison sentence and a twenty-year ban on directing or making films, communicating with media, and leaving his own country. Although officially banned from his profession since then, the Iranian filmmaker has still found his own ‘creative’ ways to circumvent censorship in Iran today, continuing to make films which notably have found their ways into the international film festival circuit. 1 After my festival viewing of Taxi Tehran and following the media`s attention on Panahi shortly afterwards, I became aware of the fact that my first encounter with Iranian cinema was significantly related to the recent international acclaim of “Iranian cinema”1, through which also Panahi`s films have found their way into film festival programming, and to the Berlinale respectively. I began to study the history of Iranian cinema from the 1950s to the Iranian Revolution (1978/79), focusing in particular on its development through the Islamic Republic, and the generation of post-revolutionary Iranian filmmakers whose films, circulating within the international festival circuit since the late 1980s, have become visible and praised worldwide. Because of Jafar Panahi`s unique position within the international film festival circuit, and his long tradition with the Berlinale, I decided to focus my thesis on his cinematic work. As a social - realist filmmaker, living and working in Tehran under house arrest and banned from filmmaking since 2010, Panahi and his works have interested me above all others and will serve my thesis as a case-study. Research Question and Aim of the Survey International films festivals, such as the Berlinale, have played an important role in providing contemporary Iranian filmmakers, most of whom have been living and working in exile, or as in Panahi`s case have been living under house arrest and banned from filmmaking,