Bloomsbury Academic New Wave Cinema in Iran, The: A Critical Study

The New Wave Cinema in Iran is a historical and analytical study of the Iranian New Wave Cinema (Mowj-e No) as an artistic and intellectual movement that came to its best early productions between 1958 and 1978. As the movement has a long history, Parviz Jahed focuses on the development and the early progression of the movement in the 1960s and explores its emergence and development in the context of the cultural and social conditions of Iran during this period.Jahed first defines the term ‘New Wave’ in Iran’s film culture, in order to identify the root elements that gave traction to this movement. He analyses the degree to which different elements and factors have contributed to the formation of this cinema, accounting for the different approaches of Iranian intellectual filmmakers towards modernity and a modern form of cinema in Iran. The book finishes by studying the works of three intellectual figures and influential filmmakers of the 1960s, Ebrahim Golestan, Farrokh Ghaffari, and Feraydoon Rahnama, who are arguably considered the forerunners of the New Wave Cinema in Iran. Review Parviz Jahed provides a fascinating account of the development of Iranian New Wave Cinema, tracing both the local factors behind its emergence and the international influences informing the aesthetic richness of the films. Importantly, Jahed considers how New Wave filmmakers were both hindered and helped by the state and assesses the critical discourses that emerged as a small group of filmmakers attempted to challenge popular cinematic conventions in Iran in the 1960s to establish an intellectual, more artistic cinematic practice. --Michelle Langford, Associate Professor, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia About the Author Parviz Jahed is an independent scholar based in the UK. He is also a film critic, film researcher, filmmaker and lecturer in film studies. He is the editor-in-chief of Cine-Eye, a UK based film journal focused on independent and art cinema, and editor of the Directory of World Cinema: Iran (2012).