Volume 15 - Number 2 February – March 2019 £4 TTHISHIS ISSUEISSUE: IIRANIANRANIAN CINEMACINEMA ● IIndianndian camera,camera, IranianIranian heartheart ● TThehe lliteraryiterary aandnd dramaticdramatic rootsroots ofof thethe IranianIranian NewNew WaveWave ● DDystopicystopic TTehranehran inin ‘Film‘Film Farsi’Farsi’ popularpopular ccinemainema ● PParvizarviz SSayyad:ayyad: socio-politicalsocio-political commentatorcommentator dresseddressed asas villagevillage foolfool ● TThehe nnoiroir worldworld ooff MMasudasud KKimiaiimiai ● TThehe rresurgenceesurgence ofof IranianIranian ‘Sacred‘Sacred Defence’Defence’ CinemaCinema ● AAsgharsghar Farhadi’sFarhadi’s ccinemainema ● NNewew diasporicdiasporic visionsvisions ofof IranIran ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews andand eventsevents inin LondonLondon Volume 15 - Number 2 February – March 2019 £4 TTHISHIS IISSUESSUE: IIRANIANRANIAN CCINEMAINEMA ● IIndianndian ccamera,amera, IIranianranian heartheart ● TThehe lliteraryiterary aandnd ddramaticramatic rootsroots ooff thethe IIranianranian NNewew WWaveave ● DDystopicystopic TTehranehran iinn ‘Film-Farsi’‘Film-Farsi’ ppopularopular ccinemainema ● PParvizarviz SSayyad:ayyad: ssocio-politicalocio-political commentatorcommentator dresseddressed aass vvillageillage ffoolool ● TThehe nnoiroir wworldorld ooff MMasudasud KKimiaiimiai ● TThehe rresurgenceesurgence ooff IIranianranian ‘Sacred‘Sacred DDefence’efence’ CinemaCinema ● AAsgharsghar FFarhadi’sarhadi’s ccinemainema ● NNewew ddiasporiciasporic visionsvisions ooff IIranran ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews aandnd eeventsvents inin LLondonondon 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. 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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 Iran 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 FILMS 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 Damascus Time: 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 Iranian Studies 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 Persian literature 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 auteurs, 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 genres and themes. to Iranian cinema as a writer, director, Th e issue is brought to a close with We begin