Iranian Cinema Uncensored: Contemporary Film-makers since the Islamic Revolution

The New Iranian Cinema is considered by many to be the most fascinating cultural phenomenon produced within the Islamic Republic of Iran. Containing twelve first-hand interviews with the most renowned film-makers living and working in contemporary Iran, this book provides insights into film-making within a society often at odds with its rulers. Reflecting upon the 1979 revolution and its influence on their work, as well as the effect of their films on Iranian audiences, film-makers such as Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi highlight the key issues surrounding the reception of Iranian cinema in the West and also its role in the development of Iran's global image. Through these conversations Shiva Rahbaran reveals that the seeds of the New Iranian Cinema were sown long before the revolution, and that Iranian film-makers gave rise to a cinema which became a global phenomenon despite censorship, sanctions and political isolation.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: New Iranian Cinema in its Cultural, Historical and Political Context 1. Mohammad Beheshti: The Role of Post-Revolutionary Institutions in the Development of Iranian Cinema 2. Bahram Beyzaie: The Myth of Revolutionary Cinema 3. Abbas Kiarostami: Where is the Revolution? 4. Dariush Mehrjui: Islamic Ideology and Post-revolutionary Intellectual Films 5. Bahman Farmanara: Exporting New Iranian Cinema 6. Rakhshan Bani-Etemad: Cinema as a Mirror of the Urban Image 7. Majid Majidi: The Revolution and the Cleansing of Film Farsi 8. Jafar Panahi: Cinema and Resistance 9. Tahmineh Milani: New Iranian Cinema and the Education of the Masses 10. Ebrahim Hatamikia: Cinema, War and Peace 11. Mohsen Makhmalbaf: An Interview That Never Was Notes Index

About the Author :
Shiva Rahbaran holds a DPhil in English Literature from the University of Oxford. She has published several books on the relationship between art and freedom including The Paradox of Freedom and Iranian Writers Uncensored: Democracy, Freedom, and the Word in Contemporary Iran. She was born in Tehran and now lives in London.

Review :
'Iranian cinema continues to twist, turn, and fascinate. It now looks like a mighty river upon which every new generation of critics and scholars casts a new look. Shiva Rahbaran's Iranian Cinema Uncensored is an indispensable new addition to an already rich and diversified body of literature on Iranian cinema. Thorough, probing, insightful, and fresh in her interpretative prowess, Shiva Rahbaran does not just update our understanding of Iranian cinema since the 1979 Revolution. Through her provocative interviews with some leading filmmakers, she actually occasions a complete reassessment of what we have known about Iranian cinema: A beautiful read and full of joyous insights.' - Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University; 'An informative book on the post-revolutionary Iranian cinema and its development. Rahbaran provides engaging conversations with major figures in Iranian cinema such as Kiarostami, Bayzaie, Panahi, Banietemad, Mehrjui, Farmanara and Majidi. Reflecting on their own work and the condition of filmmaking in Iran, they cover several issues including the commercial cinema, the New Wave, the role of government and semi-government institutions and policy makers in shaping the contemporary cinema, the portrayal of women in film, and censorship.' - Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa, Professor, Cinema Art + Science, Columbia College, Chicago