Iranian Cinema: A Political History by Hamid Reza Sadr (I.B. Tauris, September 2006), 320 pages, ISBN: 101845111478 (paperback) £16.99; ISBN 978-1845111465 (hardback) £45.00
About the reviewer: Dr Stacey Abbott is Reader in Film and Television Studies at Roehampton University. Her recent publications include: Celluloid Vampires (University of Texas Press, 2007); Angel - TV Milestone (Wayne State University Press, 2009); Editor, The Cult TV Book (I.B. Tauris, 2010); c-editor with David Lavery, Supernatural: TV Goes to Hell (ECW Press, 2011); co-author with Lorna Jowett, TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen (I.B. Tauris, 2013). She is the Series Editor for I.B. Tauris' Investigating Cult TV series of publications.
In the 1990s a new movement in filmmaking, what has come to be known as New Iranian Cinema, emerged onto the international stage and became a favourite of the Film Festival Circuit. Directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Majid Majidi and Samira Makhmalbaf have since become familiar names regularly showcased in art cinemas and studied in universities. As a result of this growing interest in Iranian cinema numerous books have been published over the past ten years that have engaged in scholarly discussion of these films, their directors and the social and cultural context of their production, placing Iranian cinema firmly alongside other distinct movements within national cinemas as the French New Wave, the Japanese New Wave and 5th Generation Chinese Cinema.
Hamid Reza Sadr’s Iranian Cinema: A Political History is the most recent book to focus its attention on the Iranian film industry but with an approach that is distinct and worthy of attention. Sadr’s book tells the story of Iranian film, decade by decade, from the first use of a film camera to record Mozzafar al-Din Shah’s visit to Belgium in 1900 through to the release of Bahman Ghobadi’s critically acclaimed Turtles Can Fly in 2004, offering a comprehensive introduction to this particular national cinema. Furthermore, rather than focus in detail upon a selection of individual filmmakers or the critically acclaimed films of the 1990s, Sadr places Iranian cinema firmly within the historical and political context of a nation undergoing massive social, cultural, industrial and political transformation throughout the 20th Century.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM4WHowIeMA
Choosing to focus upon the popular traditions, genres and stars that have emerged and developed in this period, Sadr’s intention is to consider how mainstream Iranian cinema, usually dismissed by critics as unimaginative and lacking the aesthetic concerns and subtleties of New Iranian Cinema, offers a clear indication of the political preoccupations of its day. From the pressures from the monarchy for the country to modernise and Westernise and the resulting economic and social tensions that followed through to the revolution of 1979, the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s and the impact of 9/11, this book traces a complicated relationship between a nation, its people and its politics, as reflected in its cinema. According to Sadr these films are often neither conservative nor progressive but rather express contradictions and ambivalence about the changing nature of Iranian society.
To achieve all of this Sadr has undertaken a detailed survey of Iranian films, tracing recurring themes, characterisations, and stories emerging across a broad selection of films that are rarely, if ever, discussed. In this manner, the book proves itself to be useful to both the film and history teacher/scholar. By moving from detailed discussion of historical and political events to close analysis of a wide range of films the book is at times dizzying in terms of the information being covered and would benefit from both a historical timeline and a filmography to help clarify the discussion. But this is a small criticism of a book that is accessibly written and informative in its exploration of the inherent relationship between film and politics. As such it should prove useful to anyone studying, teaching or researching Iranian film and society.
Dr Stacey Abbott