Semiotic Analysis of Woman's Portrayal in Abbas Kiarostami's Cinema

The objective of this study was to scrutinize the semiotics of the image of women in Kiarostami's cinema. The statistical population was Kiarostami's films focusing on women's semiotics. Purposive sampling method was adopted and the films "Report" and "Ten" were the samples of the research. The research design was descriptive-analytical. The data was obtained through library resources and watching films. The films were analyzed from semiotics point of view. The implemented semiotics was based on the two major traditions of Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Pierce. The study of Kiarostami's feature films indicated that he was cognizant on women and their concerns during his career and devoted much of his late filmmaking career to represent women and their problems. Notably in his recent works, he spotlighted women in his films. The results of the semiotic study of "Report" and "Ten" showed that Kiarostami tried not only to reflect the problems of women, but also to depict the society's attitude and expectations toward them, and emphasized that such traditional and stereotypical view, despite the passage of years, still existed in the society.