Cinema, culture and politics in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The films of Mohsen Makhmalba

The aim of this thesis is to chart the development of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its cinema from the 1979 Revolution to the present day by looking at the work of Mohsen Makhmalbaf as an illustrative case study. Operating exclusively under the new regime Makhmalbaf's cinema is simultaneously a product, and reflection, of the changed ideological system and is instructive and indicative of the political and social development of the state as seen through the refracting prism of cinema. Towards this end chapters one and two set out to establish a workable theoretical framework for critically analysing, and understanding, the development of cinema in the Islamic Republic. The former seeks to understand it from within a reconstituted Third Cinema frame of reference and within the history of indigenous filmic development. The latter examines the cultural and ideological basis of the new Islamic state that emerged after the 1979 showing that its foundation held a number of competing intellectual traditions that would effect all aspects of life in Iran. Chapter three sets out to examine the claims for the establishment of a new form of cinema as the new regime sought to create an 'Islamic cinema' that reflected the changed ideological circumstances. The following chapter looks at the development of this 'new' cinema through a decade of war and revolution and the debate between culture as an official propagandist tool and the beginnings of more socially engaged cultural forms. Chapter five evaluates the development of a 'quality' cinema in the era of reconstruction when Iranian cinema emerged on the international in response to changed ideological conditions. The final chapter, six, looks at the current development of cinema in Iran as part of the power straggle attempting to introduce reforms and elements of a civil society into the Islamic system.