ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on Iran and on Persian-speakers; there will be references to Hindi/Urdu and Turkish speakers in the cultural area as well as comparisons drawn to the Arab world on its margins. In most film histories, the internationally oriented art cinema has served as a metaphor for Iran's largely successful encounter with Western modernity and, especially since the Islamic Revolution, an important symbol of resistance to an oppressive and "backward" regime. The book presents some art films could represent elements of popular Iranian civil religion but it is their presence in the little-studied commercial features of the 1960s and 1970s. The popular cinema of the Pahlavi period could promote, sometimes simultaneously, the official civil religion – in concert with school curricula, news media, and official documentaries.
