Iranian Cinema
Exposed to more Open and Explicit Attacks

By M. Yazdanikhorram, Instagram
August 22, 2023

The attacks on Iranian cinema has become more open and explicit than ever before. Not a day goes by, or even an hour, without bad news from this cinema making headlines.

From actors who expose themselves to humiliation to directors who are banned, exiled and embarrassed. From trying to make the people of this cinema look ridiculous to numerous bans.

From leaking three movies in less than a few days and destroying the capital coming from the private sector to filing cases for minors and majors...



But regardless of the fact that Iranian cinema is going through bad days, this cinema is like a great collective memory that has never given up or disappeared even in its most difficult periods. Just think of Susan Taslimi's gaze, the boundless joy in the eyes of the boy in "The Runner", the blood-soaked and forbidden face of "Leila Hatami", or the only survivor of "Abu Ghorayb" strait and the resilience of Peyman Maadi.. You can find hundreds and hundreds of other moments making this cinema  a breaker of malignant and dark abysses.

In the past few years, some authorities decided to either tame or "discipline" filmmakers, or put them in a situation in which they get cold feet or "chicken out". And thus it happened that our cinema's subject matter became that of the private life of its actors and highlighting their "gaffes". This issue has occurred because other creative arts like the art of literature are not in a good position and do not have the power of cinema.

The "accidental!!" removal of the field of cinema and sculpture from the list of academic fields (in our country) is a sign to make people less hopeful about cinema; pretending that the very existens and nonexistens of this very activity (cinema) is so unstable or uncertain. Imagine how mean and despicable this cinema is becoming and how "vulgarism/vulgarity" actually is the only way for it to cover its costs.

Undoubtedly, (Iranian) cinema has always been an undesirable fact for some of this country's powerful ideologues. Even in spite of spending a lot of money to spread the "desired" cinema, the desired obedience did not happen and the insider "Deportees" (a film from 2008) loses the game to the non-insider "Nader and Simin" (A Separation) badly. Very badly indeed.

Competition is not an important thing anymore; it's all about surviving and persevering in a time when many are shown the "exit" door. To resist and survive this cinema needs to be creative in a situation where its enemies are cleverly trying to make it seem as an indecent and dirty work and constantly expose it to back-breaking events. In this way, our cinema's staring look at "them" has more meaning than ever.