Mamta Kalia

Films
GENDERING THE ‘LOOK’ IN
CONTEMPORARY IRANIAN CINEMA
Lalit Joshi
Filmmakers across the world have had to contend with the question
of the look 1 particularly when the image to be looked at happens
to be a woman. The challenge has been to direct and anchor
audience gaze by appropriately positioning the image of the woman
on the screen. Moreover, spectatorship has to be constituted in
such a way that the intent of the filmmaker can be affectively
communicated. But one must remember that films are made within
multiple constraints, the screen always being a contested space
for rival ideologies. The modern state tries to resolve this by
designing a system of censorship poised dangerously between popular
aspirations, market forces and the pressures of its political
constituencies. Also, filmmaking still remains an enterprise dominated
by men. Thus, despite resistance from women’s organizations, feminist
writers and women directors of international acclaim, cinemas across
the world have tried to achieve gendering both at the level of
scripting and the deployment of technology. A gendered narrative
is a powerful guarantee against box-office failures, even though
every filmmaker is aware that little can be done to manipulate
interpretation and meaning, which remain until the end, resolute
domains of the audience. This essay is concerned with the production
of the gendered look in contemporary Iranian cinema. I also
examine how filmmakers have accomplished subtle transgressions
of censorship regulations even when the bulk of the filmic narrative
is synchronous with patriarchal imaginings.
It is challenging to read Iranian films in India 2 particularly
at a time when the art film movement has practically withered
April-June 2010 :: 127