Iranian Cinema Uncensored

Shiva Rahbaran holds a DPhil in English Literature from the University of Oxford. She has published several books on the relationship between art and freedom including The Paradox of Freedom and Iranian Writers Uncensored: Democracy, Freedom, and the Word in Contemporary Iran. She was born in Tehran and now lives in London.

'Iranian cinema continues to twist, turn, and fascinate. It now looks like a mighty river upon which every new generation of critics and scholars casts a new look. Shiva Rahbaran's Iranian Cinema Uncensored is an indispensable new addition to an already rich and diversified body of literature on Iranian cinema. Thorough, probing, insightful, and fresh in her interpretative prowess, Shiva Rahbaran does not just update our understanding of Iranian cinema since the 1979 Revolution. Through her provocative interviews with some leading filmmakers, she actually occasions a complete reassessment of what we have known about Iranian cinema: A beautiful read and full of joyous insights.' - Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University; 'An informative book on the post-revolutionary Iranian cinema and its development. Rahbaran provides engaging conversations with major figures in Iranian cinema such as Kiarostami, Bayzaie, Panahi, Banietemad, Mehrjui, Farmanara and Majidi. Reflecting on their own work and the condition of filmmaking in Iran, they cover several issues including the commercial cinema, the New Wave, the role of government and semi-government institutions and policy makers in shaping the contemporary cinema, the portrayal of women in film, and censorship.' - Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa, Professor, Cinema Art + Science, Columbia College, Chicago

• Introduction: New Iranian Cinema in its Cultural, Historical and Political Context1. Mohammad Beheshti: The Role of Post-Revolutionary Institutions in the Development of Iranian Cinema2. Bahram Beyzaie: The Myth of Revolutionary Cinema 3. Abbas Kiarostami: Where is the Revolution? 4. Dariush Mehrjui: Islamic Ideology and Post-revolutionary Intellectual Films5. Bahman Farmanara: Exporting New Iranian Cinema 6. Rakhshan Bani-Etemad: Cinema as a Mirror of the Urban Image7. Majid Majidi: The Revolution and the Cleansing of Film Farsi 8. Jafar Panahi: Cinema and Resistance 9. Tahmineh Milani: New Iranian Cinema and the Education of the Masses10. Ebrahim Hatamikia: Cinema, War and Peace 11. Mohsen Makhmalbaf: An Interview That Never Was Notes Index