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Exploring the City in the Cinema of Bahram Beyzaie

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Nacim Pak-Shiraz*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh

Abstract

This article explores five of Bahram Beyzaie's urban films over the last four decades to study their critique of the process of modernization and social changes that have taken place in Iran. These include The Journey (Safar, 1972), The Crow (Kalagh, 1977), Maybe Some Other Time (Shayad Vaqti Digar, 1987), Killing Mad Dogs (Sag Koshi, 2001) and When We Are All Asleep (Vaqti Hame Khabim, 2009). It examines the impact of modernization on the architecture and landscape of the city and consequently on the local community. It then studies the increasing complexity of ascertaining the real and unreal within the city. Finally, it looks at the changing values, the fears and threats within the city and the impact these have on its inhabitants, particularly women and their movement within the city.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2013

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Footnotes

The author of Shi‘i Islam in Iranian Cinema: Religion and Spirituality in Film (London, 2011).

References

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15 Interestingly, the orphan theme first raised in The Journey is resurrected here.

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