Iranian Avant-garde Cinema Before the Islamic Revolution: Farrokh Ghaffari, Ebrahim Golestan and Fereydoon Rahnama

Iranian main-stream cinema in the 1951, 60s and 70s was heavily influenced by the imported culture from either the west or the east. Public interest in second-rate or third-rate Indian and American films caused commercial movies made for the box-office to base their narration style and aesthetics on the idea of pure entertainment, hence emptying it from any hint of Iranian history, civilization or culture. In this environment, filmmakers such as Farrokh Ghaffari, Ebrahim Golestan and Fereydoon Rahnama started making films like Night of the Hunchback, The Brick and the Mirror and Siavash at Persepolis, presented a new, different and unconventional image of the country’s cinematic productions in which nationalism, faith, history and culture were the main concerns. This special view towards cinema caused the works of these masters to become like mirrors held up to the Iranian society, history and culture and this was the basis for an avant-garde cinema in Iran before the Islamic Revolution.