A Social History of Iranian Cinema, Volume 2

Under the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah, from 1941 until 1979, Iranian cinema flourished and became industrialized. At its height, the industry produced more than ninety films each year. The state was instrumental in building the infrastructures of the cinema and television industries, and it instituted a vast apparatus of censorship and patronage. During the Second World War, the Allied powers competed to control the movies shown in Iran. In the following decades, two parallel cinemas emerged: commercial filmfarsi movies exemplified by the entertaining stewpot and tough-guy genres and a smaller but influential cinema of dissent, the new-wave cinema. Ironically, the state funded and censored much of the new-wave cinema, which grew bolder in its criticism as Pahlavi authoritarianism consolidated. Produced by Westernized filmmakers in collaboration with dissident writers, the new-wave cinema did well in international film festivals, beginning the globalization of Iranian cinema.