Iranian avant-garde cinema before the Islamic Revolution: Farrokh Ghaffari, Ebrahim Golestan and Fereydoon Rahnama

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH DEPARTMENT

2 PhD in Dramatic Literature / UK

Abstract

Iranian main-stream cinema in the 1330s, 40s and 50s was heavily influenced
by the imported culture from either the west or the east. Public interest in
second-rate or third-rate Indian and American films caused commercial movies
made for the box-office to base their narration style and aesthetics on the idea
of pure entertainment, hence emptying it from any hint of Iranian history,
civilization or culture. In this environment, filmmakers such as Farrokh
Ghaffari, Ebrahim Golestan and Fereydoon Rahnama started making films like
Night of the Hunchback, The Brick and the Mirror and Siavash at Persepolis,
presented a new, different and unconventional image of the country’s
cinematic productions in which nationalism, faith, history and culture were the
main concerns. This special view towards cinema caused the works of these
masters to become like mirrors held up to the Iranian society, history and
culture and this was the basis for an avant-garde cinema in Iran before the
Islamic Revolution.

Keywords