Representation of Religious Identity in Iranian Cinema After the Islamic Revolution

After the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian society revived many elements of religious identity and sought to lay the foundations of religious culture in order to acquaint the future generations of the Revolution with Islamic teachings. In fact, reviving religious and Islamic values ​​with the aim of building a religious and Islamic society was one of the most important missions of the Islamic Revolution. Also, cinema is one of the fields in which the culture and cultural concerns of society are expressed, and it has faced challenges in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. Naturally, the most important issues related to art in general and the art of cinema, in particular, in a country where the political system is based on religion and is founded upon a divinely-inspired Revolution, are God, religion and spirituality. Many filmmakers have expressed their views on religious identity through producing movies in various genres.

 

After conducting interviews with experts and critics of Iranian cinema, a series of movies that contained elements of religious identity (God, religious person, religiousness), were selected. Then, the selected movies underwent another selection procedure and finally, twenty movies that were closely linked in terms of the theme were selected. These movies partially pertain to the social, cultural and religious atmosphere of three decades. All selected sample units have almost an equal capacity of representation. The classification of movies into three groups is based on three decades of the activity of Iranian cinema.

 

First Decade:

 

Tobeh Nosuh: Screenplay written by and directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Este’azeh: Screenplay written by and directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

An Sou-ye Meh: Screenplay written by Mohammad Beheshti and directed by Manouchehr Askarinasab

Arousi-ye Khouban: Screenplay written by and directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Didehban: Screenplay written by and directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia

Hamoun: Screenplay written by and directed by Darioush Mehrjui

 

Second Decade:

 

Niaz: Screenplay written by Alireza Davoudnejad and Ali Akbar Qazinezam, and directed by Alireza Davoudnejad

As Karkheh ta Rhein: Screenplay written by and directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia

Tavallod-e Yek Parvaneh: Screenplay written by Sa’id Shapouri and directed by Mojtaba Raei

Zir-e Nour Mah: Screenplay written by and directed by Reza Mirkarimi

Zesht va Ziba: Screenplay written by and directed by Ahmad Reza Motamedi

Be Rang-e Khoda: Screenplay written by and directed by Majid Majidi

 

Third Decade:

 

Khaneh-ye Rou-ye Aab: Screenplay written by and directed by Bahman Farmanara

Kheyli Dour Kheyli Nazdik: Screenplay written by Reza Mirkarimi and Mohammad Reza Gohari and directed by

Reza Mirkarimi

Bayad Majnoun: Screenplay written by Majid Majidi, Fouad Nahas and Nasser Hashemzadeh, and directed by Majid Majidi

Yek Tekeh Naan: Screenplay written by Mohammad Reza Gohari and directed by Kamal Tabrizi

Khoda Hafez Rafiq: Screenplay written by and directed by Behzad Behzadpour

Pa Berehneh Dar Behesht: Screenplay written by and directed by Bahram Tavakkoli

Har Shab Tanhaei: Screenplay written by and directed by Rasoul Sadr-Ameli

Ketab-e Qanoun: Screenplay written by Mohammad Rahmanian and directed by Maziar Miri

 

Representation of the Component “God”

 

God is represented in these films within a framework of traditional religious identity. Tobeh Nosuh, Este’azeh, An Sou-ye Mehand Arousi-ye Khouban have focused on divine will, and it is only Hamoun that highlights the individual will. Also, Didehban is in an intermediate state. There is an indirect relationship between the subjects and God in Tobeh Nosuh, Este’azeh, and An Sou-ye Meh and only Hamoun shows a form of direct communication. (Table 1) The movies produced during the second decade present the image of God differently such that generally it can be argued that they reflect an intermediate state between the divine and the individual wills. As for the relationship of subjects with God, there has been a serious change compared to the last decade, that is to say, a direct relationship with God has been institutionalized in cinema. (Table 2) In the movies produced during the third decade, divine will is re-emphasized but still, the subjects have direct relations with God. Therefore, the result shows the existence of an intermediate religious identity. (Table 3)

 

Table 1:

God           Scripts	Emphasizing on  predestination and God’s will or the individual’s will	The relationships between the subjects and God; directly or indirectly	Religious traditional/ reflexive identity
Movies produced during the first decade	Emphasizing on the Divine predestination	Emphasizing on indirect relationship	Traditional religious identity

 

Table 2:

God     Scripts	Emphasizing on  predestination and God’s will or the individual’s will	The relationships between the subjects and God; directly or indirectly	Religious traditional/ reflexive identity
Movies produced during the second decade	Emphasizing on the intermediate state	Direct relationship	Reflexive religious identity

 

Table 3:

God       Scripts	Emphasizing on  predestination and God’s will or the individual’s will	The relationships between the subjects and God; directly or indirectly	Religious traditional identity/ reflexive
Movies produced during the third decade	Emphasizing on divine predestination	Direct relationship	Intermediate religious identity

 

Representation of the Component “Religious Person”

 

The religious person presented in the movies of the first decade has taken a form of traditional religious identity, in a way that literalism and obsessive adherence to divine rules in such movies have a tangible dominance. (Table 4) In the second decade, the religious person also has a reflexive religious identity because the categories of observing ethics, free-thinking and gnostic religiousness are tangibly represented. (Table 5) Likewise, in the movies pertaining to the third decade, the religious person again, while enjoying most of the reflexive categories, is separated from traditional religious identity. (Table 6)

 

Table 4:

Religious person         Scripts	Ritualist and ethical	Literalist and following gnostic religiousness	Being aware of and adhering to divine rulings	Dependent and free thinker	Traditional/ reflexive religious identity
Movies produced during the first decade	Ethical	Literalist	Adhering to divine rulings	Intermediary	Traditional religious identity

 

Table 5:

Religious person         Scripts	Ritualist and ethical	Literalist and following gnostic religiousness	Being aware of and adhering to divine rulings	Dependent and free thinker	Traditional/ reflexive religious identity
Movies produced during the second decade	Ethical	Following gnostic religiousness	Not representing	Freethinker	Reflexive religious identity

 

Table 6:

Religious person         Scripts	Ritualist and ethical	Literalist and following gnostic religiousness	Being aware of and adhering to divine rulings	Dependent and free thinker	Traditional/ reflexive religious identity
Movies produced during the third decade	Ethical	Following gnostic religiousness	Not representing	Freethinker	Reflexive religious identity

 

Representation of the Component “Religiousness”

 

During the first decade, religiousness has an intermediate state and falls under the category of traditional and reflexive components. (Table 7) Also in the second decade, religiousness has been seen as reflexive, and the categories of intellectual, critical, desire-oriented, and inquiry-based religiousness are quite evident. (Table 8) This situation is more evident in the third decade, such that all components of religiousness are in a reflexive state. (Table 9)

 

Table 7:

Religiousness         Scripts	Imitative, based on inquiry and contemplation	Being against gnosis, religious gnosis	Out of habit, out of desire and passion	Passive, critical	Mystic, being based on wisdom and rationality	Traditional/reflexive religious identity
Movies produced during the first decade	Intermediary	Not representing	Intermediary	Intermediary	Not representing	Intermediary religious identity

 

Table 8:

Religiousness         Scripts	Imitative, based on inquiry and contemplation	Being against gnosis, religious gnosis	Out of habit, out of desire and passion	Passive, critical	Mystic, being based on wisdom and rationality	Traditional/reflexive religious identity
Movies produced during the second decade	Being based on inquiry and contemplation	Not representing	Being out of desire and passion	Critical	Being based on wisdom and rationality	reflexive religious identity

 

Table 9:

Religiousness         Scripts	Imitative, based on inquiry and contemplation	being against gnosis, religious gnosis	Out of habit, out of desire and passion	Passive, critical	Mystic, being based on wisdom and rationality	Traditional/reflexive religious identity
Movies produced during the third decade	Being based on inquiry and contemplation	Religious gnosis	Being out of desire and passion	Critical	Intermediary	Reflexive religious identity

 

Empirical Data          

 

In order to increase the empirical validity of the data, the content of the movies produced during each of the three decades was examined and analyzed based on the unit of sequence. The results are consistent almost in all cases. (Table 10)

 

As seen in the following table, all quantitative and qualitative results are consistent with each other, except for one case in the third decade, which of course is not a deep gap.

 

Table 10:

God                            Period of time		Traditional religious identity	Reflexive religious identity	Quantitative results	Qualitative results
First decade	Didehban	13 sequences	4 sequences	Traditional	Traditional
	Arousi-ye Khouban	5 sequences	3 sequences	Traditional	Traditional
Second decade	Tavallod-e Yek Parvaneh	13 sequences	4 sequences	Traditional	Traditional
	Zir-e Nour Mah	3 sequences	10 sequences	Reflexive	Reflexive
Third Decade	Khaneh-ye Rou-ye Aab	5 sequences	6 sequences	Intermediary	Reflexive
	Yek Tekeh Naan	7 sequences	6 sequences	Intermediary	Intermediary

 

Table 11:

(All of the results are consistent with each other)

God                            Period of time		Traditional religious identity	Reflexive religious identity	Quantitative results	Qualitative results
First decade	Didehban	4 sequences	18 sequences	Reflexive	Reflexive
	Arousi-ye Khouban	16 sequences	7 sequences	Traditional	Traditional
Second decade	Tavallod-e Yek Parvaneh	10 sequences	14 sequences	Reflexive	Intermediary
	Zir-e Nour Mah	5 sequences	20 sequences	Reflexive	Reflexive
Third Decade	Khaneh-Ye Rou-ye Aab	5 sequences	17 sequences	Reflexive	Reflexive
	Yek Tekeh Naan	6 sequences	17 sequences	Reflexive	Reflexive

 

Table 12

(All of the results are consistent with each other)

God                            Period of time		Traditional religious identity	Reflexive religious identity	Quantitative results	Qualitative results
First decade	Didehban	6 sequences	16 sequences	Reflexive	Reflexive
	Arousi-ye Khouban	12 sequences	11 sequences	Intermediary	Intermediary
Second decade	Tavallod-e Yek Parvaneh	20 sequences	4 sequences	Traditional	Traditional
	Zir-e Nour Mah	5 sequences	20 sequences	Reflexive	Reflexive
Third Decade	Khaneh-ye Rou-ye Aab	5 sequences	17 sequences	Reflexive	Reflexive
	Yek Tekeh Naan	9 sequences	14 sequences	Reflexive	Reflexive

 

Reference: Journal of Culture and Communication Studies. Vol 13, No 18, Summer 2012, Pages 59-81.

 

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