ABSTRACT
The complexities involved in reading Iranian cinema generally and the emphasis that Iranians place on extratextual information to de-code and politically position films that are themselves available to quite different interpretations gives the system a case-by-case caste. This chapter exemplifies the situation with a discussion of interpretations of Masoud Dehnamaki’s The Outcasts trilogy. It then moves to examine the two categories of filmmaking favoured by the Islamic Republic, the Cinema of Sacred Defence, and religious/spiritual cinema, both positive ways of promoting Islamic themes and values in cinema. Since their introduction during the Iran-Iraq War they have undergone various transformations and hybridisations, of which The Outcasts trilogy is an obvious example. In some quarters the Cinema of Sacred Defence has been expanded and rebranded as “Resistance” to maintain currency. Here I will consider modulations to the genres between 2000 and 2013. Films and filmmakers include Reza Mollagholipour, Rakshan Bani-Etemad, the much younger female filmmaker Narges Abyar, the Academy Award-nominated Farewell Baghdad, and Kiumars Pourahmad’s Nightbus. The surprisingly varied terrain of religion and the spiritual covers Nader Talebzadeh’s Jesus the Spirit of God through to Reza Mir-Karimi’s Under the Moonlight and Kamal Tabrizi’s The Lizard. The introduction of interfaith films is also discussed.
