ABSTRACT
Produced and distributed inside the Islamic Republic of Iran, nearly every detail of the opening sequence of the comedy Shish o Besh from the "scandalous" Western dance music to the men and women dancing and flirting together-is illegal under the country's Islamic legal code. The author contend instead in this chapter that youth pop films-and the critiques they levy-should be viewed as carefully crafted consumer products aimed at attracting younger, middle-class urban audiences, while ultimately reinforcing the ideological and moral messages of the government. To make this argument, the author divides the chapter into two sections. In the first, the author sets out to contextualize the rise of youth pop films, evaluating why these films emerged within a particular historical moment in Iran. In the second, the author analyzes the constructed images of youth in these films, and how these images reflect back on the structural and social conditions within the country.
