‘I am them and they are me’: the transnational body as collective in Iranian women’s cinema

ABSTRACT

Women’s bodies have often been used as metonymic, standing for the nation and its ideologies. In exploring both narrative and documentary style filmmaking, I turn to two films: Gilaneh (2006) by Rakhshan Banietemad and A Moon for my Father (2019) co-directed by Mania Akbari and Douglas White. In Gilaneh, Banietemad codifies the maternal to symbolise the nation, but only to subvert and critique the state’s neglect of the forgotten mother. By imagining war beyond the borders of Iran, Banietemad also imagines the mother figure across the nation, giving her international significance. In A Moon for my Father Akbari features her own body and battle with breast cancer. Even in the film’s most intimate moments, Akabri reflects on and connects herself to the women’s movement in Iran. In their conceptualisation of women’s bodies, I argue that both Banietemad and Akbari extend the singular body beyond its national boundaries, calling for and insisting upon an intersectional and collective feminism.

KEYWORDS:

• Transnational cinema
• women’s filmmaking
• transnational feminism
• Iranian cinema
• feminist filmmaking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The hijab, I would argue has been one of the most effective ways in which the regime has secured its desired image of an Islamic nation. But other visuals such as images of martyrs through murals have also aided in the creation of the Islamic Republic’s nationalist branding. In general, the Iran–Iraq war became a highly political moment for the regime to think about its image both within Iran and the region.

2. Agnes Devictor draws on the 1996 booklet, which details what is forbidden. They are as follows: ‘it is not allowed for women to be filmed in close-up, to use makeup, or to wear tight-fitting or colourful clothes; men must not wear ties or short-sleeved shirts unless they are negative characters, no Western music is allowed, no intimate lighting; even the editing must correspond to the Islamic norm’ (Devictor 2002, 70).

3. In an interview I conducted with the filmmaker in Autumn of 2021, Akbari uses the term ‘war bodies’ to refer to bodies impacted by war.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zahra Khosroshahi

Zahra Khosroshahi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Glasgow, researching women’s filmmaking and Iranian cinema. She is currently working on her forthcoming monograph Iranian Women Filmmakers: A Cinema of Resistance (Edinburgh University Press).