Dawn of Cinema in Iran: Socio-political Challenges

In spite of its simultaneity with the birth of the industry in Europe, emergence of cinematic production and consumption in our country, Iran, paved a different road, namely a socio-politically challenged one. Indeed, though Mozaffaredin Shah was a great supporter, other parties, such as the businessmen, clergies, the bureaucratic statesmen and even the allied powers who had occupied the country during the WWII, had their own reasons to affect the direction of new-born industry. In such an atmosphere, cinema has encountered different challenges and had to overcome various disputes with different social agencies whose leaders aimed to control the industry under their socio-political ambitions. Exploring the documents and the historical texts, the present study attempts to study the socio-political challenges cinema has encountered at the dawn of its presence in Iran.