The History of Iranian Independent Cinema and Its International Presence in the World

by Mostafa Mohammad Khani

Independent Iranian cinema began in the 1940s with the flow of Iranian intellectual literature. And with directors such as Farrokh Ghaffari, Shahid Sales, Bahram Beizai and Amir Naderi, sparks of hope were formed in this cinema, and even political films such as Masoud Kimiaei. With the making of the films Deer and Qaisar and Dariush Mehrjoui with the making of the film Gao, a wave of criticism of the political rule of that time was able.
In a way, he helped the Iranian people to protest. And it can be said that a wave of Iranian filmmakers introduced to the world
And these films, in addition to being shown and welcomed in cinemas and festivals inside Iran, create global successes and screenings in the international arena for Iranian cinema.
With the beginning of the street protests, the Iranian cinemas were hit the hardest, and even the cinemas were set on fire, and the main reason was not independent cinema but commercial and popular cinema, which considered the revolutionaries to be promoters of corruption and prostitution.
After the Revolution of 1975, Iranian cinema was marginalized for several years, but the filmmakers of the New Wave of Iran that we mentioned again began to make films with human themes and with their works, the flow of independent Iranian cinema in the international arena.
Due to the eight-year war, the regime also produced works from war cinema and religious and semantic cinema, and young and new filmmakers also entered this field.
And it can be considered the crystallization of Iranian art and author cinema in the seventies. Iranian cinema developed so much that it can be said that they excelled in most of the international and important Iranian film festivals.
And one of these prominent filmmakers was Abbas Kiarostami, and with this brief history, it can be considered an analysis of Iranian independent cinema in the international arena.
After the end and the removal of the negative from the cinema and the beginning of the era of digital technology, there was a huge change in the cinema, considering that a new wave of young and independent cinematographers began to work in the availability and cheapness of image production materials.
Due to the high cost of negatives and side costs such as laboratory and limited filming, with the beginning of the digital age, simultaneous image access and convenient and simple editing of this technology greatly helped to make independent cinematographers easy and inexpensive.
And independent cinema was produced, where many films by Iranian art authors were made with the least budget
In addition, the activities of educational and academic institutions were expanded, which can be used by young cinema associations across the country and private institutions in this field to train a young and enthusiastic generation of cinema.
In recent years, a wide wave of short film production was produced in Iran and even broke world records in production, arena and screening at international festivals.
In addition, it must be acknowledged that, unfortunately, low-quality works have also been produced.
In any case, Iranian independent cinema continues to go through ups and downs in different governments in Iran and different tastes of government management.
And it is worth mentioning that the Iranian author’s cinema, unfortunately, has not yet been able to reach the ideal goal of attracting a domestic audience.
However, in recent years, with the establishment of the Institute of Art and Experience in Iran with the screening of independent and artistic films in limited cinemas, most of which are in major cities of Iran. These filmmakers have been able to attract a certain audience to the cinemas, but unfortunately they are still ideally successful.
Have not been contacted.
With the start of work and the establishment of Internet platforms in Iran, a new market has emerged for independent films of Iranian cinema, and if the producers and producers of such films can do the right and wide advertising in this place, they can attract more audiences.
Due to the young generation of Iran, most of whom have academic education. It is a good place to attract them to cultural and artistic products.
And yet this cinema continues to have many ups and downs due to different government policies
It continues to live. And it can be said that it is one of the best cultural and artistic representatives of Iran, which properly introduces Iranian art, culture and civilization in the world.
And even without exaggeration, it can be said that it has had a great impact on art cinema in the region and even in the world
And we owe a lot to the filmmakers of the past and present of the country that due to the negative political propaganda of the country in the popular media of the world, this cinema has been able to be a very good representative of the culture, art and civilization of Iran.