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Imagining the Diaspora in the New Millennium Comedies of Iranian Cinema

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Nacim Pak-Shiraz
Nacim Pak-Shiraz*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
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Abstract

This article examines the genre of comedy in Iranian cinema and explores the various influences on its development and growth. It demonstrates how the roots of recent comedies can be traced back to pre-Revolution commercial cinema (known as filmfarsi) as well as the traditional Iranian comic theatre of taqlid. In particular, it focuses on the depictions of the Iranian diaspora in these comedies. The Iranian diaspora has been imagined and represented frequently in modern Persian culture, often satirically and humorously. More recently, Iranian comedies have provided a new space to imagine, define, criticize and redeem the Iranian diaspora.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , March 2013 , pp. 165 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2013

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Professor Marilyn Booth and Dr Andrew Marsham for their comments on an earlier draft.

References

1 Number of films produced and screened in the last ten years: 1380/2001—18, 1381/2002—18, 1382/2003—18, 1383/2004—30, 1384/2005—43, 1385/2006—39, 1386/2007—47, 1387/2008—47, 1388/2009—56, 1389/2010—62, 1390/2011—65. See Farabi Cinema Foundation: http://www.fcf.ir and http://www.Cinetmag.com (accessed 21 February 2012).

2 The foundation acts as the executive arm of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and is an important funding body.

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6 For a discussion on how films such as The Lizard employ the medium of film to critically engage with some of the most contentious issues within Iran, see Pak-Shiraz, Nacim, Shi‘i Islam in Iranian Cinema: Religion and Spirituality in Film (London, 2011), 67–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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27 An exception to female participation in dance sequences can be seen in a dance segment in Maxx (Saman Moghadam, 2004) where female actors are present but their movements restricted to walking, climbing stairs and sitting around the male actors performing the dance movements.

28 Naficy, Social History, vol. 2, 282.

29 See Nacim Pak-Shiraz on “Masculinity in Iranian Cinema,” forthcoming.

30 I received this information from a friend who had attended such a gathering amongst young, upper-class Tehranis.

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54 See Pak-Shiraz, Nacim, “The Divine Word on the Screen: Religious Epics in Iranian Cinema,” in Approaches to the Qur'an in Contemporary Iran, ed. Cancian, Alessandro (London, forthcoming).Google Scholar