Summary (Iranian cinema)

Bahman Qobadi was born in Kurdish of Iran; also he is an Iranian film director of Kurdish ethnicity. He is known for making short films. Qobadi worked in partnership with Mosen Makhmalbaf. His work with Makhmaldaf was the stepping stone of his career in film making. Qobadi is greatly influenced by Makhmaldaf and his way of making film. Because of the knowledge Qobadi gained from Mosen Makhmaldaf, he felt like he earned a college degree in cinema. Kiarostami was another filmmaker Qobadi worked with. He collaborated with him in his last film “The Wind Will Carry Us Away”. Nonetheless Qobadi was not influenced by him or his work. That doesn’t mean Qobadi did not like his work. In fact, he stated “I came to conclusion that I admire Mr. Kiarostami greatly but I can never make calm films as he does” Kiarostami even gave him idea about a film title “Honeybee” but still struggled about Kiarostami style, not a piece of his work reflected Kiarostami. Kiarostami films are calm and rely on audience interpretation.

1900 was the year cinema reached Iranian soil. Since then religious targeted and predestined cinema as unpleasant, immoral insult and as a discourteously influence from Western to Iranian culture. The first public screening took place in Tehran in 1904; however, after a month it closed down. There was no reason released why it closed down. Soon after the revolution films about the revolution were banned and investments in making new film died by political issues. However, the amount of imported films skyrocketed Iranian market, such as comedies from Italy, karate from Japan and comedy to political from United State. The new government rapidly understood the power of cinema and interpreted as misinformation. In 1981 they release detail regulations on islamizing the cinema that were approved. Before a film can be screened or even made, it must pass five junctures at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (MCIG). They reviewed the outline of the film, scrutinized the screenplay, inspected the cast and last not at least, they reviewed the complete film before given the permit in which cinema it could be shown. It was not an easy task for filmmaker. Between 1980 and 1982 only 25 percent of 202 screenplays passed this those tests. For the film industry that was a huge draw back and disappointment. There were about 74 of films licensed by Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (MICG). On the other hand there were a couple of film banned during the Shah’s era, such as Costa-Garvas Z and State of Siege; Guzman‘s Battle of Chile, Pontecorovo’s Battle of Algiers. They were so popular and screened in 12 cinemas at the same time in Teheran and 10 in the province. The Farabi Cinema Foundation (FCF) was set up to regulate import, production and distribution of film and became the most powerful agency for film production, distribution and even import and export. Iranian filmmakers faced a censorship. They could not show any intimacy, no matter how inconsequential, between male and female, or even between married couples. Moreover, women had to be fully covered even when showed at home. Filmmakers were not allowed to show corruption in a film about Shah’s regime. Many filmmakers avoided problems by self censorship, such as avoiding certain topics, or by not giving women a big role. Another form of self censorship was on politics. In cinema view point, they were limited. During Post-Revolution the number of audience cinema decreased. In April 1989, the government eased a little bit in censorship; therefore, allowed censor film to be shown. Not too long after, let say about less than a month authorities changed their mind and remove the screenplays.

Written by student: Donald