Iranian Cinema: A Political History » (New Edition)

Hamid Reza Sadr is a film critic and writer based in Tehran.

This book reveals the history of Iran through its cinema as Sadr uses the films themselves to tell the story of shifting political, economic and social situations. The book covers the broad spectrum of Iran's cinema, offering vivid descriptions of key films and recurring themes and tropes, such as the preponderance of images of childhood, and what these reveal about Iranian society. It includes films throughout the 20th century with special emphasis on recent films influenced by September 11, from Mohsen Makhmalbaf's astonishing Kandahar to Saddiq Barmak's angry work Osama.

List of illustrations     vii
Introduction     1
Early years: from 1900 to the 1920s     4
The 1920s to the 1940s     12
The 1940s     38
The 1950s     45
The 1960s     90
The 1970s     130
The 1980s     166
The 1990s     211
2000-2005     270
Notes     288
Index     292