Films of Makhmalbaf

The "Films of Makhmalbaf examines the close and volatile relationship between a highly popular art form, the production of culture, and the politics of power in a society. Through a critical analysis of Mohsen Makhmalbaf's films, this book reveals the social and political context of Iran's national cinema under the Islamic Republic. It tracks the emergence of Iranian cinema since the Islamic Revolution, as Makhmalbaf, one of Iran's most influential filmmakers, and a committed artist whose work is provocative and never far from controversy, sought to engage the dramatic social and political upheavals that have taken place over the past twenty-four years. Makhmalbaf's films have always been reflexive meditations on the nature of cinema and art within a society, and Makhmalbaf's art, as part of that system, provides a view of film as an extension of its political environment. And as Iranian society has changed, so Makhmalbaf's films have progressed, from ardently advocating the declared ideals of the new regime to criticizing the failures of the revolution and examining controversial issues, all the while elucidating the social and political role of art and the artist.