Crossing Borders: Iran, Nation and Cinema On the New Conditions of National Cinema in the Case of Iran R.M. Korrel Supervisor: Dr. Blandine Joret 10253238 Second reader: Dr. Amir Vudka [email protected] Media Studies: Film Studies Word count: 20.836 University of Amsterdam Date of submission: 26-06-2017 Crossing Borders: Iran, Nation and Cinema ABSTRACT This thesis “Crossing borders: Iran, Nation and Cinema” provides an overview of the key concepts and debates within the still-developing field of the national cinema in film studies, taking the contemporary censored and uncensored Iranian films as case study. The main question is: What new insights do censored and uncensored Iranian films of the twenty-first century provide concerning the national identity of Iran? The films Tambourine (Parisa Bakhtavar, 2008), About Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2009), Women Without Men (Shirin Neshat, 2009) and Taxi Tehran (Jafar Panahi, 2015) will be discussed in depth in terms of how they convey contemporary Iranian national identity. This research is a literature study of national and global aspects of cinema in the case of twenty-first century Iranian film industry with guidance of four film analyses. Keywords: Iranian cinema, national identity, national cinema, globalisation, auteur theory 2 Crossing Borders: Iran, Nation and Cinema TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 CHAPTER 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK National Identity and Cinema 1.1 The Origins of National Identity………………………………………………….…. 8 1.2 National Cinema………………………………………………………........................... 14 1.3 National Cinema in the Twenty-First Century………………………............16 1.3 Conclusion….…………………………………….……………………………………………23 CHAPTER 2. CASE STUDY IRAN – LITERATURE REVIEW: The Islamic Republic of Iran and Its Film Industry 2.1 The Origins of Iranian Censorship……………………………………………. 24 2.2 The New Iranian Cinema……………………………………………………………29 2.3 General Themes……………………………………………………………………….. 33 2.4 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...... 36 CHAPTER 3. CASE STUDY IRAN - FILMANALYSES: The Global Auteur and Splitted National Identity 3.1 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………… 37 3.2 Film 1: Tambourine (Parisa Bakhtavar, 2008) ………………………… 37 3.3 Film 2: About Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2009) ………………………………..45 3.4 Film 3: Women Without Men (Shirin Neshat, 2009) …………………. 50 3.5 Film 4: Taxi Tehran (Jafar Panahi, 2015)…………………………………. 51 3.6 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………. 54 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………..…… 55 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………….. 60 FILM LIST…………………………………………………………………………………..………… 63 WEBSITE LIST…………………………………………………………………………………..… .. 63 3 Crossing Borders: Iran, Nation and Cinema INTRODUCTION This Is Not A Film (Jafar Panahi, 2011) tells the story of the Iranian director Jafar Panahi in expatriation by recording him during a ‘typical’ day in Iran. Panahi had to smuggle this politically charged film out of Iran by sending the film on a USB stick, hidden in a pie, to the jury of the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. Hereby he gained his goal: to present his controversial film to the world. The film is blur between documentary and fiction, and shows the moviegoer an insight of Iran’s contemporary status of film censorship. This example of Panahi shows (1) multiple difficulties of Iranian directors living in Iran due to the cinematic censorship rules and (2) multiple facets of globalisation that has impacted national cinema. On the one hand, the difficulties of Iranian film directors to tell their story to the world. It gives a concerning example of the repression of free cinematic expression in the contemporary nation state of Iran. These Iranian cinematic modesty rules such and political control derive from the Iranian (Islamic) Revolution in 1978-9 and are still present today in Iran. Several internationally known Iranian filmmakers have left Iran because of the strict regime of Iran’s government, including Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and Bahman Ghobadi. In contrast with his fellow directors, Panahi still lives in Iran (EYE Film Institute, “This Is Not a Film”). On the other hand, Panahi’s film shows the facets of the globalisation and new digital improvements in the film industry, such as digital format, DVD, digital screening, and home screening, makes it easier for the Iranian director to deliver their film to the distributor company and for the distributor to distribute the film worldwide. Although the political charged film from Panahi is prohibited for showing in Iranian theatres, the film can be shown at Iranian homes with DVD and the World Wide Web such as Home screening. Thusly, the Iranian government wants to create an independent Iranian national cinema, but Iranian filmmakers want to create films that are also open and accessible to the global market. Therefore, the current situation in the Iranian film industry is a split in national identity for the Iranian exiled 4 Crossing Borders: Iran, Nation and Cinema filmmakers. Jafar Panahi is an example of an Iranian exiled filmmaker, that expresses the national identity of Iran by using a ‘diasporic’ film style1. This thesis examines national identity and the way it is constructed in contemporary Iranian films which are situated in different circulation of the national or global market. This may give a new model for national identity and national cinema in the twenty-first century. By considering the narrative structures of the four Iranian films (Tambourine, About Elly, Women Without Men and Taxi Tehran) and the legal context of the directors I hope to give new insights about the national identity in the twenty-first century. This leads me to my main question of this research: What new insight do censored and uncensored Iranian films of twenty-first century reveal concerning the national identity of Iran? In this thesis, I will improve previous research about the new conditions national cinema enters in the twenty-first century. Previous research have stated this new link and relationships between the globalisation and national cinema and the new ontology for national cinema (Esfandiary 62). Moreover, the tension between Iranian state and new wave Iranian directors have risen scholarly attention2 since the Iranian Revolution in 1978-9. Most notably papers are about the new wave - censored - Iranian cinema. However, I will add information - to the existing literature on Iranian national identity and cinema - by using both categories of contemporary Iranian cinema: censored and uncensored Iranian films. I will examine four films. Two uncensored films in Iran: Tambourine (Parisa Bakhtavar, 2008) and About Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2009); and two censored films in Iran: Women Without Men (Shirin Neshat, 2009) and Taxi Tehran (Jafar Panahi, 2015). The Iranian uncensored films are based on UNESCO statistics on films popular among Iranian moviegoers in film theatres in Iran. The internationally known Iranian films are based on prize- winning films from film festivals, including Berlinale. The second reason for 1 Hamid Naficy has studied exiled and diasporic filmmaking and describes the current trend of ‘accented cinema’. This means a certain style of film style by directors who are banned or exiled from their home country (Naficy ‘Accented Cinema’ 4-6). 2 Most renowned three books on new Iranian cinema are as follows. Firstly, Shahab Esfandiary has researched in his book Iranian Cinema and Globalization the national identity of new wave Iranian cinema to the current phenomenon of globalization. Secondly, Richard Tapper has edited a book – The New Iranian Cinema – with different essays on the developments of the strict regime of Iran upon cinema since the Revolution, the themes of new wave Iranian cinema, the development to new wave Iranian cinema genre and the national identity by new wave Iranian cinema. This book was a result of the conference held on new wave Iranian cinema in 1999. Thirdly, Hamid Naficy has researched in his book An Accented Cinema the new wave Iranian cinema from exiled Iranian filmmakers and their ‘accented’ style. 5 Crossing Borders: Iran, Nation and Cinema this research, I refer to the statement of cinema history and media archaeologists Tom Gunning and André Gaudreault: "Theory has History"3. This means that in the contemporary society, cinema has adjusted and changed to the new phenomena of globalization and seeks for new and old theories (Van Den Oever et al. 13-16). In this matter, the theory of imagined community from Benedict Anderson in 1983 and the theory of national cinema from Andrew Higson in 1989 are still relevant in contemporary film research and practices. The third reason for this research is the still existing barrier, obstacle and border between the West and “the Other”4 that needs to be crossed. With this research, I provide more observations and theories for anyone interested in learning about Iranian culture, a niche in Middle Eastern culture and particularly in Islamic culture. Not only is it a culture that is or was treated as “the Other” or as counterpart of Western culture, it is also a culture that is in transformation by the new conditions of the capitalist-globalisation and medium-digitalisation. To conduct my research, I have structured my thesis in three chapters. The first chapter is a theoretical framework of the two essential concepts: national identity and national cinema. I will use literature as research method. In this chapter I will try to combine these two essential