ABSTRACT
In Brazil, cinema is one of the main avenues into Iranian culture. This chapter discusses the reception of Iranian films in Brazil and how they set the image of a retrograde and claustrophobic Iran, a country to be saved from bankruptcy and tyranny. It analyzes synopses from the catalogs of the São Paulo International Film Festival (SPIFF), the oldest and most important festival in Brazil. The synopsis folklorizes "the poor situation of the people". If we were supposed to find films that show "the reality of Iran", we might consider all the production of the New Iranian Cinema, starting with Gav, which at that point, had not been shown at SPIFF. Similarly, Kiarostami's short film Mashq-e shab is considered "an analysis of the Iranian educational system", when, as anyone can easily understand, it is a film about students' angst about the work to be done.
