ABSTRACT
Ahmadinejad’s second presidential term was ushered in with the domestic release of Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly (2009) just six days before the contested election. About Elly received international critical acclaim but also resonated with an Iranian audience, achieving high box office returns, and was tolerated, if not welcomed, by the government. It was a new role model for filmmakers. But the government was determined to re-introduce Islamic values and designed strategies to implement what is described as “Muslim filmmaking”. It considered critical filmmaking “worse than espionage” and “cultural betrayal”. It took strong punitive action against filmmakers for activism, film content, and permit issues. In 2010 Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof were arrested. With This is Not a Film (2011), Panahi continued filmmaking in a combative way, and Rasoulof made a very explosive film with Manuscripts Don’t Burn (2013), a thriller about an actual real government assassination attempt on artists. The government’s soft war and cultural diplomacy tactics, some punitive and others encouraging, became more refined. This chapter provides an analysis of the programming of the Fajr International Film Festival since 1982, noting how it reflects political change, and discusses the closing of the House of Cinema and the government’s attitude to Hollywood in this era.
