Papers by Maryam Ghorbankarimi
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Apr 20, 2021
<p>In this chapter, Banietemad speaks articulately and at length about her life and work, r... more <p>In this chapter, Banietemad speaks articulately and at length about her life and work, relating memories and anec-dotes concerning her childhood and her individual path to filmmaking. She also offers insightful reflections on the decisions and circumstances behind the making of some of her most prominent works, and emphasizes the endless inspiration she gets from the many different people in her country, and the social and cultural issues they have always faced.</p>
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Apr 20, 2021
As an artist, photographer, and filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami masterfully continued experimenting w... more As an artist, photographer, and filmmaker, Abbas Kiarostami masterfully continued experimenting with medium, style, and storytelling throughout his long and fruitful career. This paper will look at his film oeuvre as a whole and will focus on his style of filmmaking, which can be characterized by the osmosis of formalist and realist elements and his move beyond the restrictions of genre. When watching Kiarostami's films and considering the vast amount of scholarly literature about his work, we come across one unifying theme: the use of realism. He has been described as the master of bridging fact and fiction, walking the thin line between documentary and fiction storytelling. 1 Realism in film can be explained as a style 1
Transnational Screens
The 21st century resurgence of the political thriller genre was informed by two factors: the post... more The 21st century resurgence of the political thriller genre was informed by two factors: the post 9/11 geo-politics and the new global landscape of film and television. Tehran (Kan, 2021-), the recent political thriller series from Israel on Apple TV+, offers an illuminating example of the transnationalisation of the genre. By analysing the series along with discussions on its production context and reception in Israel, Iran and internationally, we demonstrate the complex and shifting relationship between the entertainment and the political elements, which typify the genre and its global travel. Revolving around the topical geo-political b Film Studies ARTICLE HISTORY Received 11 February 2022 Accepted 20 May 2022 KEYWORDS Political thriller; TV series; transnational TV; Iran-Israel conflict; female agents issues, the series’ action-based plot delineates an Israeli military operation to neutralise the Iranian nuclear reactor, while deeper layers of the narrative point to its political aim: countering negative representations of Iran and provoking a critique of Israel’s own forms of oppression and its internal identity crisis. Placing at its centre a young Israeli female agent, whose complexity is rooted in her hybrid identity as a migrant Iranian-Jew, the series renders visible suppressed histories of Iranian-Jewry’s fractured relationship with Zionism. This, we claim, is the core of the series’ political critique, which despite its potential subversion was largely lost in the reception space.
The concept of ‘national’ cinema has increasingly been questioned across contemporary scholarship... more The concept of ‘national’ cinema has increasingly been questioned across contemporary scholarship in a globalised era and the focus has shifted towards the concept of ‘transnational’ instead. While the notion of transnational cinema has emerged in response to the perceived insufficiencies of existing categories such as ‘national’ cinema, in and by itself it is not sufficient either. There is almost no consensus over the exact definition and the discourse of ‘transnational cinema’, which raises questions such as what makes a film transnational, and are all or only some films transnational? There is a degree of ‘national’ in all films and is no conflict between the two terms ‘national’ and ‘transnational’. As Debora Shaw argues in her paper on “Deconstructing and Reconstructing ‘Transnational Cinema’”, “there is a link between national identities and storytelling at the heart of cinema, even when we take on board all the nuances and questioning of the national that transnational critical approaches have brought.” Although films may not offer the truth about a nation, they do have something to say about the way national identities are constructed. It is through negotiation and crossing borders that transnational elements are built into national elements. This paper will look at Iranian cinema since the 1990s with a specific focus on Asghar Farhadi’s films including “The Salesman” to discuss and compare the advantages and disadvantages of adapting either of the two terminologies ‘national’ and ‘transnational’ in relation to the discourse of Iranian cinema in a global age
For a country of multitude of languages and ethnic backgrounds, inclusion of languages other than... more For a country of multitude of languages and ethnic backgrounds, inclusion of languages other than Persian, i.e. representing the ethnic minorities in Iranian cinema had been very minimal up until the turn of the 21st century. One of the only genres that did systematically include minorities was the 1980s and 1990s war films. Especially those films that hoped to mobilise ‘all’ Iranians to defend their country against the common enemy. Unfortunately, even if films did include characters that naturally spoke other languages than Persian at home, would only employ some stereotypical phrases here and there to set their characters, for instance as ‘Azari’ or ‘Kurd’ and then they would speak Persian for the rest of the film. They even spoke Persian in what is commonly known as Tehran accent and did not speak Persian with their regional accept. However, this has changed since 2000 due to both decentralisation of cinema from Tehran to other cities and through allowing characters speak their mother tongue even if they reside in Tehran. Now in the recent years films have partial Persian subtitles when characters speak their mother tongue. This can perhaps be explained due to several cultural and political changes in the institution Iranian cinema in response to political changes in the country. This paper will focus on two recently released films with very different genres: The Pig (Mani Haghighi, 2018) and I am not angry! (Reza Dormishian, 2014 – released 2018) to address this shift in including and representing minorities as not just a narrative device for propaganda purposes but as a realistic means of representation of the plural Iranian society
The 21st century has seen a meaningful rejuvenation of the political thriller genre and ‘spy narr... more The 21st century has seen a meaningful rejuvenation of the political thriller genre and ‘spy narratives’ informed by the aftermath of 9/11 and the new landscape of film and television production, dominated by global streaming platforms. These new political thrillers are marked by interconnectivity and transnationalism, both in their content and production contexts, by greater emphasis on contemporary geo-political concerns, and by seemingly new gender politics, subverting the hitherto masculine typification of the genre. The new Israeli drama series Tehran (Kan 11, 2020 - ) that was bought recently by Apple TV, shares much of these characteristics and joins a secession of recent Israeli espionage thrillers that have been picked up by global streaming platforms and seen international success and critical acclaim; Fauda (2015-2020) being the most prominent example. However, as this paper will seek to show, Tehran has taken the genre into new grounds of transnational exchange, primarily through its main protagonist - the undercover female Israeli agent Tamar. Focusing on the transnational body of the female spy, our paper situates the character of Tamar in the wider context of what Tasker has termed “the postfeminist female spy”, and moves to examine the ways in which her particular positionality as a first generation Israeli of Iranian heritage, sent to Iran on an undercover military mission, serves as a linchpin to the series’ overall exploration of contemporary Israeli-Iranian geo-political relations. The series, we would argue, subverts to a degree both the respective national narratives and dominant representations by creating imaginary brief spaces of longing to renegotiate the past and for different futures
ReFocus: The Films of Rakhshan Banietemad, 2021
The introduction offers an overview of Banietemad’s life and works. It also addresses each chapte... more The introduction offers an overview of Banietemad’s life and works. It also addresses each chapter individually to highlight the main argument and content of each chapter as well as demonstrating their connection with the overall aims and scope of the book.
<p>Rakhshan Banietemad is one of Iran's first female film directors. This book, the fir... more <p>Rakhshan Banietemad is one of Iran's first female film directors. This book, the first English language study of her films and career, contains chapters by some of the most prominent scholars of Iranian cinema, as well as younger scholars with fresh points of view. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, the book gives special attention to Banietemad's understudied documentaries and films, including Under the <italic>Skin of the City</italic> (2001) and <italic>Tales</italic> (2014), while offering new perspectives on well-known works such as <italic>The Blue-veiled</italic> (1995) and <italic>The May Lady</italic> (1998). The contributors focus on questions of aesthetics and poetics, social realism, gender dynamics and the 'afterimages' and 'counter-memories' of revolution and war, and the book also includes an in-depth interview with Banietemad herself.</p>
Animation in the Middle East, 2017
Although the history of Iranian cinema dates back to the turn of the 20th Century, the art of ani... more Although the history of Iranian cinema dates back to the turn of the 20th Century, the art of animation was not fully utilised until the 1950s. With the Iranian intellectual movements in the 1960s and the advent of Iranian independent cinema, producing animation films were also institutionalized in both governmentally supported institutions, the Iranian national TV broadcasting and in the Kanun (The centre for education of children and young adults). These two institutions that lend a huge hand in creating the Iranian intendant cinema before the revolution, both began an animation department by the 1960s. The number of the people who formed these departments was a hand full but their persistent and their artistic innovations resulted in some of the most memorable works which also did make it to the international arenas. After the revolution similar to many other aspects of the film industry, animation productions were also affected by the changes and shifts in the Iranian society. But what helped animation to revive shortly after the revolution was the fact the two named institutions continuing their work after the revolution following a very similar mission as before the revolution only with new management. Animation began as an elite medium and despite the fact that the number of productions has increased considerably today it has never turned into a commercial and mainstream means of production. Although animation productions fall behind a few decades to the rest of Iranian cinema what is fascinating about the history of Iranian animation production is in two folds; one, the involvement of women in the animation industry in its early stages of creation and two, the themes and styles that animators have adapted throughout the years. This paper will offer an account of history of animation production in Iran while introducing some of the marginalized figures; such as Mahvash Tehrani, Mahin Javaherian who have begun their work as early as some of the most celebrated Iranian Animation filmmakers such as; Noureddin Zarrinkelk and Farshid Mesghali.
ReFocus: The Films of Rakhshan Banietemad, 2021
In this chapter, Banietemad speaks articulately and at length about her life and work, relating m... more In this chapter, Banietemad speaks articulately and at length about her life and work, relating memories and anec-dotes concerning her childhood and her individual path to filmmaking. She also offers insightful reflections on the decisions and circumstances behind the making of some of her most prominent works, and emphasizes the endless inspiration she gets from the many different people in her country, and the social and cultural issues they have always faced.
ReFocus: The Films of Rakhshan Banietemad
This chapter offers a survey of her documentary works in search of a unique social realist approa... more This chapter offers a survey of her documentary works in search of a unique social realist approach to filmmaking. The chapter argues that, although Banietemad’s auteurship might be evident in her films through their recurring links and themes, it is in her self-reflexive documentaries that we really see her artistic and critical approach to telling stories about ordinary people in society.
As an artist, photographer and filmmaker, late Abbas Kiarostami continuously experimented with me... more As an artist, photographer and filmmaker, late Abbas Kiarostami continuously experimented with medium, style and storytelling throughout his long and fruitful career. I would like to argue that his filmmaking could be characterised by the osmosis of formalist and realist elements and the move beyond the restrictions of genre. Formalism emphasizes film’s potential as an expressive medium, and for formalists, film should not merely record and imitate what is before the camera, but using various techniques, it should also produce its own meanings at the same time. Realism, by contrast, emphasizes film as a medium that reproduces what is before the camera, and although film techniques are also important in realist films, they are not employed to produce meaning within the film. Realist film should speak for itself and allow the audience to draw their own conclusions. Bazin believed that realist cinema was a more democratic form of film since it did not manipulate the audience, and simil...
The films of Annemari Jacir, an American-Palestinian director, are concerned with the questions o... more The films of Annemari Jacir, an American-Palestinian director, are concerned with the questions of identity and nationality. Her films, besides criticizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, portray the issue of intersectional diasporic identity through the protagonist’s nostalgic homebound journey, replicating the director’s own longing to go home. Her films along with the other films labeled as Palestinian help preserve this stateless nation’s identity. Although the concept of ‘national’ cinemas have increasingly been questioned across contemporary scholarship in the global era, when it comes to Palestinian films, a true transnational cinema, it is still often referred to as ‘Palestinian Cinema’. This goes as much as the Academy Awards recognizing the Palestinian films while the United States does not recognize the state of Palestine. Hani Abu-Assad, one the greatest Palestinian directors, states that what binds Palestinian films together is the shared Palestinian ‘struggle’. Jacir...
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Papers by Maryam Ghorbankarimi
However, it was only after the 1979 Revolution and the subsequent legitimization of cinema by the Islamic rule that cinema became widely accessible to the general public. Within this context, this book explores the changing roles of women in film production and their representation in films made between the 1960s and 2000s. Although some aspects of women’s lives became stricter after the revolution, it was in the late 1980s that women took a prominent role both behind and in front of the camera for the first time. It is demonstrated here that such shifts were due to several factors, including factionalism within the Islamic Republic, shifts in the Iranian film industry, and the emergence of a group of highly educated film production teams, in addition to the fuller integration of women into the film industry, which is analyzed in particular detail.
This study explores a number of representative female-centric films, with a focus on their cultural, social and cinematic contexts. Discussing these films with respect to the representation of women, it uses textual analysis as its base methodology. Interviews conducted with filmmakers and people active in the industry also serve to place the films into their historical, social, and political context.
Devotes specific attention to Banietemad’s long career in documentary filmmaking, which has been neglected in much of the scholarly works thus far
Includes chapters by some of the most prominent scholars of Iranian cinema as well as younger scholars with fresh points of view
Situates Banietemad among world auteurs while still looking at her works within the Iranian context
Includes an in-depth interview with the director
Rakhshan Banietemad is one of the first female film directors in Iran. This book, the first English language study of her films and career, Iranian director Rakhshan Banietemad contains chapters by some of the most prominent scholars of Iranian cinema, as well as younger scholars with fresh points of view. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, the book devotes special attention to Banietemad’s understudied documentaries and films, including Under the Skin of the City (2000) and Tales (2014), while offering new perspectives on well-known works such as The Blue Veiled (1994) and The May Lady (1997). Focusing on questions of aesthetics and poetics, social realism, gender dynamics and the ‘afterimages’ and ‘counter-memories’ of revolution and war, the book also includes an in depth interview with Banietemad herself.