War and Iranian Cinema

Organiser

Dr P Khosronejad (Dept. of Social Anthropology)

With assistance of

Mr K Jafarshaghaghi, Ph.D. candidate, (Dept. of History)

Date
Semester one, Thursdays 4-6 pm

Venue
School I

All are welcome

When images of war form shocking reminders of what actually occurred, they can become points of reference for future generations. Carefully preserved in folklore and enthroned as tradition, these images are often invoked for political purposes that transcend party and class factionalism, and can serve to unite the nation in supreme sacrifices for the national interest. The inception of Iranian war cinema occurred after the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war in the early 1980s. However, it has taken many years for this cinema to find its own language, genre and identity, a search which is arguably still ongoing. The Iran-Iraq war had an important influence on Iranian post-revolutionary cinema. In parts as a consequence of such events, today in Iran we can discern several genres and schools of filmmaking which have significantly defined themselves through their treatment of the topics of the war.

In view of this background, during two semesters we will present documentary and fiction films on different aspects of the Iran-Iraq war, at once opening these up to academic scrutiny and discussion. With the help of ethnographical film theories and visual anthropology, our main aim in this programme will be the creation of A space for debating and understanding such topics as trauma and martyrdom, related to the Iran-Iraq war.

In the first semester we will begin our debate by presenting different documentary films which explore the impact of Iran-Iraq war on the post-war periods of Iranian society. We will continue and end this semester’s film presentation with a general introduction to the cinema of Seyed Morteza Avini, which became known as ‘Illuminative Cinema’ (Cinamay-e Eshraqi). This school of war documentary film making became one of the main ideological and intellectual genres of war film making in Iran, especially for those whose focus is predominantly on the themes of the Iran-Iraq war.

Based on this school of film making, ‘Illuminative Cinema’, in our second semester we will present for the first time the complete films of the eminent Iranian film maker Mr Ebrahim Hatamikia.

- Week 3 Thursday 15 October 2009
Bassidji
Mehran Tamadon, 114 mins, 2009, France, English subtitle

-Week 4 Thursday 22 October 2009
The Faces on the Wall
Bijan Anquetil, Paul Costes, 64 mins, 2007, France, English subtitle

-Week 5 Thursday 29 October 2009
Behesht Zahra: Mothers of the Martyrs
Mehran Tamadon, 47 mins, 2004, France-Iran, English subtitle

-Week 6 Thursday 5 November 2009
Plastic Flowers Never Die
Roxane Varzi, 33 mins, 2008, U.S.A

-Week 7 Thursday 12 November 2009
The Zero Degree Orbit
Mahmoud Rahmani, 26 mins, 2007, Iran, English subtitle

-Week 8 Thursday 19 November 2009
Doomsday Machine
Soudabeh Moradian, 60 mins, 2008, Iran, English subtitle

-Week 9 Thursday 26 November 2009
Noah’s Ark
Soudabeh Babagap, 26 mins, 2002, Iran, English subtitle

-Week 10 Thursday 3 December 2009
Enamored
Morteza Avini, 40 mins, 1986, Iran, English subtitle

-Week 11 Thursday 10 December 2009
Fourth Day’s of Attack
Morteza Avini, 36 mins, 1988, Iran, English subtitle