Self-reflectivity and moral representation of “the other” in Iranian meta-films

Mainstream cinema seeks to naturalize and project as real what comes from an ideological and imaginative framework. Met-films, on the contrary, are meant to highlight their own artificiality and imaginative nature through their particular focus on the movie production process.The two dominant views with respect to the moral association between “the self” and “the other” in the history of western philosophy, are represented by Jean-Paul Sartre and Emmanuel Levinas. From Sarte’s standpoint, that association is characterized by conflict. Levinas, on the other hand, raises the concept of asymmetrical and infinite responsibility, introducing moral heteronomy. If mainstream cinema represents the dominant discourse on the association between “the self” and “the other”, then the question is whether the self-reflective qualities in the Iranian meta-films have created variations in the representation of “the other”? To address that question, the present research has put the spotlight on such meta-films as “Under the Olive Trees” (1994) by Abbas Kiarostami, “When We Are All Asleep” (2009) by Bahram Beyzaei, Mix (1999) by Daryoush Mehrjouee, and “Smell of Camphor, Scent of Jasmine” (1999) by Bahman Farmanara. Relying on descriptive analytics, the study bases its review on Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The research concluded that those meta-films have their own different individual treatment of “the other” as the obstacle on their path toward creativity. When it comes to this, Kiarostami and Beyzaei have resorted to heteronomy, while Mehrjouee and Farmanara — despite appearing critical and intellectualist — do reproduce the dominant discourse.