P.R.Harikumar-A Writer in Malayalam / Presenter of Ramayana & Thirukkural on Mobile

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Today in every occasion of serious cinema we see a quest for Iranian films, which the audience in any corner of the world has a real thirst for. Why did Iranian cinema achieve such a reputation around the world? This question is being answered in this essay with a brief analysis of some of the contemporary Iranian films.

The first Iranian film -The Lor Girl- was produced in 1934 by an Iranian expatriate Abdol-hossein Sepanta. In the succeeding four decades we see a lot of low quality melodramas and comedies in the Iranian screen. Only in the decade preceding 1979 revolution we realize the emergence of a new wave cinema. The film that proclaimed the new sensibility was Dariush Mehruji’s The Cow, a disturbing tale of poverty and mental breakdown in which the mysterious death of the only cow in a village drives its owner insane.

After becoming an Islamic republic in 1979, every human expression in Iran was being censored under strict rules of its administration. The rulers considered movies as agents of moral corruption. An Iranian film critic, Dr.Jamsheed Akrami, says about the rudeness behind the film censorship. He writes thus: “Currently, film censorship is implemented in four stages: First, the script must be approved to ensure its content is appropriate; second, the list of cast and crew must be submitted to receive a production permit; third, the finished film is sent to the censorship board, which may approve it unconditionally, require changes, or ban it altogether; finally, the producers of the approved film must apply for a screening permit. The last stage subjects the film to a three tier letter rating system-A, B, and C-determining the film’s booking and its access to the media for promotion”.

After 1979, the people of Iran lost the chance to see the Hollywood films and gradually they have overcome the wrong influence of Western cinema. In one way the Islamic perception of cinema helped Iranian filmmakers to find out their own identity in expressing the realities around them. They sought their own ways of narrative techniques, acting modes, dialogue presentation, color combination and so on. They created a particular culture in cinema, which is solely connected with the Middle East traditions of human civilization. Besides, to overcome the strict censorship rules they try to communicate with a symbolic language for the safety of ideal expression. In a limited sense they would like to become romantic storytellers in the screen.

Considering the essential qualities of cinema-luminosity, movement, realism and montage-it has an inherent capacity to represent the physical realities of the world easily. Almost every Iranian film shown in international film festivals has made an impression of human reality. For example, some films of Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Kandahar, Boycott and Cyclist) expressed the political reality of Iran and the Middle East. At the same time, films of Darius Mehruji (Banoo), Majid Majidi (Children of Heaven, Color of Paradise), Tahmineh Milani (Two Women), Gholem Reza Remezani (The Cart), Rassul Sadr Ameli( The Girl in the Sneakers), Samira Makhmalbaf (Blackboards) and Mehdi Sabaghazdeh (Maral) exemplified the socio-economic realities of Iran in its vividness. Poverty among the people, inequality between men and women, strict rules and regulations in the public life are reflected in their films. The filmmakers always think in terms of real life and its harsh realities. Pure romantic scenes that appear in our films are not in them, because they have something to communicate as their own. Dream sequences are very rare due to their conscious effort to express the need of reality principle of life. For a brief outlook in these matters we can analyze some of the films, which in every respect represent the contemporary Iranian cinema. I think it will also show some of the major trends in their cinema.

Kandahar, a film by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is dealt with the story of a lady –Nafas- who travels through many countries to rescue her sister in Kandahar from a suicidal attempt to be committed in the last eclipse of twentieth century for which only three days remain. Hence, Nafas was continuously traveling for the last twenty-five days through Pakistan, Tajikistan and Iran to get into the boundary of Kandahar in Afghanistan. She had to face many impediments on the way and she was seeking space in many places and vehicles to reach her destination as fast as she can. At last she became a captive in the Iranian-Afghanistan border and never she realized her aim regarding her sister’s life.

Along with her personal experiences, she is recording the life she saw around her especially the pathetic condition of women and children in a tape recorder, which was truly nicknamed as her ‘black box’. In one moment, Nafas says that the woman who makes half of the society in Afghanistan has no name or image because she is fully covered. Actually, this film is a female experience of what is happening in this chaotic world.

She could see many things like terrorist attacks, isolated relief camps, Red Cross society’s help centers and the heart burning agony of war victims in her journey. The people who lost their legs by landmines are in search for artificial one. The distribution of artificial legs from the sky is one of the touching scenes in the film.

The narrative style of a travelogue and the presence of direct hitting images of human life are the main features of this reality-based film. The Indian music especially the Sanskrit verses rendered in particular scenes have added much to the total effect of the film. The humanistic approach shown by its director throughout the film helps it to reach into a sphere of artistic creation with a mission.

The film by Majid Majidi is all about a boy and his sister. It is an attempt to depict the capacity of children to understand the harsh realities of life. They can teach us great lessons in many occasions. Some of the Iranian films show great interest in expressing life through the eyes of children. Really, those child characters are not for the pleasure of children, on the contrary, they stood as paragons of deeper values of human life.

This film contains a little bit of story, which arises only after a set of shoes is lost in a poor family. A boy and her sister kept the matter as a secret from their parents. And they adjust the days with one set of shoes remaining. The girl found out the lost shoes in another poor girl’s legs but she could not make a claim on it. At last the boy joined a race conducted for students by the school authorities for securing a pair of shoes as the third prize. But unfortunately he finished the race with a first prize. In a desperate mood he arrived near his sister who is eagerly waiting for the new shoes. We get a bit of relief when their father comes from the market with two pair of new shoes. The simplicity and directness in the way of narration remind us about the possibility of cinema as a medium for expressing reality without even touching the romantic zone.

Basically, the film by Samira Makhmalbuf tries to elucidate the problems of illiteracy in a society. At the beginning we see a group of teachers wandering with blackboards in their back in search of students who like to read and write. Nobody likes to treat them as teachers and learn anything from them. A society, which is totally against learning, must be in pain from many corners. One of the teachers in the group unexpectedly had to accompany a mob that is in search of their homeland. The vicissitudes of a man who cannot urinate easily are very visible in the travel episode. The teacher who accompanies the mob tends to marry the daughter of the old man who is always in pain. But it gave no pleasure to him. At last when they arrived at the border the teacher divorced and gave her his only wealth i.e. blackboard.

The narrative technique used in this film is a mixture of documentary and fiction. So we can call it as a docu-fiction. Camera every time moves with the people and shows what is happening in their life. The image of blackboard is changing from time to time. Sometimes it became a shelter for the oppressed, a stretcher for weak persons and a screen for personal feelings. In very few instances it is being used as a true blackboard for learning purposes but all is in vain. That is the ill fate of the society portrayed in the film.

These three films unanimously joined in an attempt to portray the realities in the society in a realistic way. They do not like to lose human content in their films anyway. In an age of experimentalism and computer aided fantasies, Iranian cinema put forward some standards to retain its human qualities and a visual language as sensitive as it can. World cinema gets refreshed from this film culture and tries to be more and more life–oriented in its means.