Mamta Kalia

the popularity of song and dance. 5
This also explains why cinema became
a victim of purging in the hands of radical
Islamists in 1978-79.
Finally, a quick look at the
representations of Iranian women in prerevolutionary
cinema becomes necessary
to understand why gendering became
a powerful instrument of making films
that were in line with the guidelines
evolved by the revolutionary government
in Tehran. Like their counterparts
elsewhere in the world, Iranian
filmmakers began to play up the
traditional woman against the modern.
There were some who satirized her while
others exploited her. In film after film,
Esmat Delkash, a popular actor of the
50s and 60s, played the fallen (modern)
woman, who depended on her body for
surviving in a society dominated by lusty
men. The image of the fallen-woman (party
girl/prostitute/cabaret dancer) was in
striking contrast to that of the innocent
girl who was represented as the dutiful
wife and mother. The fallen-woman not
only provided voyeuristic material to
spectators “but also reinforced the sense
of female vulnerability in the face of
male power and aggression. 6 Perhaps it
was on account of such developments,
that the restoration of traditional
womanhood became a major priority of
the new patriarchal state after the
revolution.
The 1960s through the 70s witnessed
dramatic developments in what has been
130 :: April-June 2010
called the march of the Iranian film
industry towards documentary realism.
Three filmmakers who took the lead in
this direction included Dairush Mehrjui
(Gaw), Massoud Kimiai’s (Qeyser) and
Nasir Taqvaie (Aramish Jolu-i-Deegran).
Their efforts paved the way for the birth
of a new genre – the Iranian New Wave
or the Iranian Art film. In fact both
Gaw and Qeyser were screened after
throwing a challenge to Iran’s censorship
laws. 7 As Safawi and Dehlvi have
remarked, “the purposeful drift of ideas,
the subtle transportation of mundane
human existence to the experience of
an inner self, the simplicity of portrayal,
the hidden voice of protest all combined
together to put these films together in
a complete genre from Film Farsi”. 8 The
New Wave movement also attracted the
attention of Iranian intellectuals such
as Furugh-e-Farrukhzad, Gholam Hussain
Saedi and Dairush Mehrjui, who began
to write regular columns about cinema.
Though still far from being seen as a
global phenomenon, the new Iranian
cinema also caught the attention of
European and American audiences. Some
Iranian directors came to be recognized
as auteurs during this period. Abbas
Kiarastomi won the Palme d’Or at Cannes
in 1997 (for his film A Taste of Cherry)
and was compared to Jean Luc Godard,
Kurosawa and Ray.
The Islamic Revolution of 1978
completely transformed the way in which
Iranian cinema came to be made and
viewed domestically and abroad. In the