Cinema—West Asia | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Film production in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran has struggled in the face of censorship, lack of government support, and competition from the U.S. film industry. Nevertheless, in the past few decades, Iranian and Turkish films have made their way onto the international scene, where they have garnered awards. Iraqi cinema faces more obstacles than Turkish or Iranian cinema and is rarely seen in the West.

Documentary films are the most common type of film produced in Iraq because of the prohibitive technical requirements and expenses associated with the production of feature films, and documentary film production is dominated by the state. High costs and lack of state support, combined with a history of domestic unrest, have prevented the emergence of a strong and independent private sector; currently only a limited number of films are privately produced each year. The most successful company is the Babil Corporation, which is partly owned by the government. The primary film producer in Iraq is the state-owned and -operated Cinema and Theatre Administration.

Not surprisingly, most Iraqi films are either complimentary narratives of Iraq's history and development or critical assessments of the impact of United Nations sanctions and military operations against Iraq. Although such films can be seen as mere legitimization exercises by the government, they also represent a viewpoint that is rarely given credence in the West.

Sanctions and Iraq's difficult political and economic situation have meant that few Iraqi films ever reach Western audiences. Furthermore, the future of both public and private sectors has been severely affected by the banning of raw film imports into Iraq under the U.N. sanctions. In light of the nature of Iraq's film industry and the failure of its films to have a presence in the Western market, it is not surprising that Iraqi films have been little studied. Whatever analysis there is has been published exclusively in Arabic.

For many years, Turkish cinema was dominated by cheaply made films produced for a wide audience. Collectively referred to as Yesilcam (the Turkish version of Hollywood), such films were Turkey's answer to Hollywood, replete with swooning, blond-tressed falsetto-voiced women and hirsute men with handlebar mustaches. Most were simplistic depictions of life, often based on popular Turkish novels or American films.

However, Turkey's film industry has also been a medium through which the country's various domesticconflicts are examined. For example, Halit Refig's Sehirdeki Yavanci (Stranger in the City, 1963) explored the conflict between Islamic and secular values in Turkey. Karanlikta Uyananlar (Those Awaking in Darkness, 1964), directed by Ertem Gorec, dealt with the social consequences of a workers' strike. The conflict over Turkey's ethnic and religious identity has been expressed in various and often differing efforts to develop a national film culture. One example was the Milli Sinema, a national film movement that emerged in the 1970s as a promoter of Turkey's Islamic identity, producing several films with strong religious contents, including Birlesen Yollar ( Joining Roads, 1970) and Memleketin (My Country, 1974).

The long and often bloody history of Turkey's Kurdish minority has also been reflected in the effort to develop a Kurdish film industry. The Kurdish film industry has struggled to survive, severely hampered at various stages by the efforts of Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq to prevent the realization of a Kurdish identity. The technological revolution in the late twentieth century, which saw the introduction of videos and satellite television, has made it easier for Kurdish filmmakers to produce independent films. Perhaps the best-known Kurdish movie is Yol (The Road, 1982). It won the Cannes Film Festival's highest award, the Palme d'Or, in 1982 but was not allowed to be seen in Turkey until 1992.

Although films such as Yol (The Road, 1982), Etikiya (Bandit, 1996), and Hamman (Turkish Bath, 1997) have drawn significant international audiences and won rave reviews at European film festivals, the growing international presence of Turkish films has been paralleled by the mounting obstacles that filmmakers face at home. Most filmmakers struggle to make films on limited budgets, with inadequate government support and in the face of the country's often volatile political and economic situation. Turkish films must also compete with American films, which, with the latest filmmaking technology and internationally recognized actors, are very popular in Turkey.

The cinema industry has become one of Iran's best-known exports. During recent decades, Iranian films have won favorable reviews from Western filmgoers and critics alike and have gained numerous awards at international festivals. Two prominent examples are Abbas Kiarostami's Taʿm-i Gilas (Taste of Cherry, 1997), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997, and Majid Majidi's Bachchahʿha-yi Aseman (Children of Heaven, 1997), which received an Oscar nomination in 1998. Aside from their popularity, Iranian films present an alternative view of Iranians, who have traditionally been seen in the West as fanatical and intolerant. However, while displacing one negative image of Iran, the films have to a certain extent been popular because they depict other stereotypical images, of Iran's idealized past or of a sentimental view of children. Consequently, such films have been criticized for seeking popular acceptance by pandering to the Orientalism of the West by exoticizing and patronizing Iranian life.

Iranian filmmakers, however, have emphasized such content because it can easily pass strict government censorship requirements. Under these requirements, there can be no violence, no affection between men and women who are unrelated, no dancing, no female singers or alluring music. The story must not offend the clerical establishment or disagree with Islamic tenets. As a result, Iranian filmmakers have developed ingenious ways to surmount the censorship barriers. Mohsen Makmalbaf overcame the ban on depicting a woman giving birth by donning a skirt and playing the role himself in his 1996 film Gabbeh (Gabbeh, 1997). Other directors have cast female and male actors who are related, thereby skirting the rule against characters demonstrating affection. Filmmakers have often resorted to allegory, satire, and symbolism to get their message across—hence the frequent use of small children.

Some filmmakers, however, have willingly dealt frankly with sensitive issues. Ibrahim Hatamikia's Azhans Shishahʿyi (The Glass Agency, 1998) portrayed the plight of disabled war veterans in the aftermath of the Iran-Iraq war. Davoud Mirbaqeri's Adambarfi (The Snowman, 1995) has come under strong criticism from conservative elements in Iran for its depiction of male cross-dressing.

Like the press, television, and universities in Iran, the cinema has become a battleground where a war is waged between opposing ideological views—between those who want to reform Iran's conservative Islamic system and those who campaign for its continuation. Recently reformist politicians, in an effort to liberalize the arts, have encouraged the film industry by attempting to loosen cultural restrictions.

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Shafik, Viola. (1998) Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity. Cairo, Egypt: American University Press.

Siavoshi, Sussan. (1997) "Cultural Policies and the Islamic Republic: Cinema and Book Publication." International Journal of Middle East Studies 29, 4: 509–530.

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