After reading up on the Islamic Revolution, I was on the lookout for something to watch and chanced upon this documentary titled: Iran: A Cinematographic Revolution. The 90 minute documentary chronicles the evolution of Iranian cinema beginning from the reign of the Shah till the early aughts when the theocracy was firmly in power.
The documentary is streaming on YouTube and its definitely one of the best visual narratives of the Revolution and its impact on what is arguably the greatest Iranian export – its cinema. After Khomeini returned, there was a clamour to shut down cinemas and ban the industry altogether. Fortunately, Khomeini happened to watch a movie called ‘The Cow’ which was about a poor villager’s attachment to his cow and his eventual descent into madness when the cow passes away. So, the next day Khomeini declares:
We are not against cinema; we are against prostitution
So, with this one statement, Iranian cinema survived and the world got to witness the genius of the Panahis. Kiarostamis and the Farhadis. There is also a view that some filmmakers were given extra leeway by the censors for the international recognition that Iranian cinema began to garner from the 80s. A heavy use of symbolism. reliance on stories about children, plots dealing with universal emotions and movies that demanded audience engagement were some of the outcomes of the Iranian censors.
The 60-second long opening montage of the documentary is worth viewing if you don’t have time to spare for the whole thing. I found it inexplicably moving.
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