ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a historical exploration of exile in Iranian and Persianate culture, particularly in song and image, from the medieval to the modern era. Popular filmfarsi melodramas came to dominate representations of erotic love and exile in Iran during the Pahlavi era. The chapter argues that such films largely treated exile as a means to reaffirm or strengthen familial love and homosocial bonds seen to be crucial to the welfare of the family and, as such, the nation at large. Like many popular Iranian films of the time, Dalahu was at some level a criticism of the stifling, even noxious, aspects of family life from a largely urban and middle or upper-middle class perspective. Exile in its various dimensions has long been a critical component of people's understanding of human suffering in Iran and the wider Persianate world. The chapter concludes with a brief look at the real-life experience of exile for millions of Iranians in more decades.
