Zsolt Pápai: Replay and Return. European classical modernism and contemporary Iranian film

 

According to the basic principle, one of the reasons for the favourable reception of contemporary Iranian film in the Western world is the fact that several directors, especially Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, continued the tradition of modern film, which became out of date in Europe by the beginning of the 1980s, and further developed its results. The author using András Bálint Kovács’s concept proves, that contemporary Iranian film art run a similar route in these two decades as its western counterpart did from the end of the second world war until the beginning of the 1980s (romantic modernism was followed by the age of mature and political modernism). And the special stylistic features of modern film such as the minimalist, naturalist and ornamental forms fully and the theatrical form partially. After a wide scale observation of the most important eras the author outlines the Iranian versions of modern film forms, moreover he presents how they changed during different periods. Finally, he examines the relationship between neo-realistic, European modern and contemporary Iranian film art based on the similarities of method in the construction of the story and picture editing techniques.