Iranian Cosmopolitanism
A Cinematic History

A unique look at how cinema shaped the cosmopolitan society in Tehran through cultural exchanges between Iran and the world.

Golbarg Rekabtalaei (Author)

9781108407465, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 September 2020

319 pages
22.7 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.47 kg

'Rekabtalaei's Iranian Cosmopolitanism … stitches together the Iranian cinematic projects from the 1920s to the 1970s by attending to the irreducibly cosmopolitan quality of Iranian cinema … By sheer force of spectacular detail, Rekabtalaei is utterly convincing that there is no 'purely' Iranian cinema. Even when commandeered for nationalist propaganda, Iranian cinema is a story of cosmopolitanism across class-lines … [Her book] attest[s] to the rich, analytical potential of expansive notions of cinema.' William E. B. Sherman, Journal of Religion & Film

From popular and 'New Wave' pre-revolutionary films of Fereydoon Goleh and Abbas Kiarostami to post-revolutionary films of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the Iranian cinema has produced a range of films and directors that have garnered international fame and earned a global following. Golbarg Rekabtalaei takes a unique look at Iranian cosmopolitanism and how it transformed in the Iranian imagination through the cinematic lens. By examining the development of Iranian cinema from the early twentieth century to the revolution, Rekabtalaei locates discussions of modernity in Iranian cinema as rooted within local experiences, rather than being primarily concerned with Western ideals or industrialisation. Her research further illustrates how the ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity of Iran's citizenry shaped a heterogeneous culture and a cosmopolitan cinema that was part and parcel of Iran's experience of modernity. In turn, this cosmopolitanism fed into an assertion of sovereignty and national identity in a modernising Iran in the decades leading up to the revolution.

Introduction
1. Cinematic imaginaries and cosmopolitanism in the early twentieth century
2. Cinematic education, cinematic sovereignty: the creation of a cosmo-national cinema
3. Industrial professionalisation: the emergence of a 'national' commercial cinema
4. 'Film-Farsi': everyday constituencies of a cosmopolitan popular cinema
5. Cinematic revolution: cosmopolitan alter-cinema of pre-revolutionary Iran
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]