Review of: Albanian Cinema through the Fall of Communism: Silver Screens and Red Flags , Bruce Williams (2023) Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 246 pp., ISBN 978-9-46298-015-0, h/bk, USD 150.00
This article examines the transformation of the Iranian family during the Pahlavi era through the lens of cinema, focusing on FilmFarsi and the Iranian New Wave. It argues that modernization did not replace traditional values but recontextualized them within an emerging consumerist and visual culture. Drawing on Marx’s concept of commodity fetishism and Debord’s society of the spectacle, the study shows how the family – historically rooted in economic and religious structures – came to function as a commodified image within the modern urban landscape. Through readings of three FilmFarsi works – The Brother (1971), I Am Going to Buy a Dad (1974) and The Nightwatch (1975) – the article demonstrates how the lower urban classes encounter the family as a desirable yet often unattainable ideal consumer spectacle. In contrast, Dariush Mehrjui’s Mr. Gullible (1970) offers an explicit critique of commodification, framing it as symptomatic of moral decline and the erosion of patriarchal values. By distinguishing between the explicit critique of New Wave cinema and the critique-enabled representations of FilmFarsi, the article highlights the multiplicity of responses to modernization. It ultimately argues that the Iranian family’s evolution reflects not rupture but an ongoing negotiation between tradition and competing visions of modernity.
Scholars of critical caste studies generally agree that mainstream literary and screen narratives often misrepresent Dalit subjectivity, thereby obscuring the deeply entrenched forms of inequality and oppression specific to Dalit experiences. As a conceptual framework, critical caste studies also delve into the nuances of Dalit experiences that differentiate one individual from another based on class, race, gender, religion, ethnicity and sexuality. The social architecture developing within such complex yet delicate layers of identities intersecting each other involves dynamics of politics and historical power relations and finds its place in literature, cinema or other forms of artistic representation. Considering these complexities, the article problematizes with a series of contemporary Dalit issues: (1) how has mainstream Hindi cinema evolved into queering the concept of the ‘hero’ as it transitions from male-centred to female-centred narratives, (2) what impact does the rise of streaming culture in India have on representation of Dalit women, (3) how are Dalit female characters portrayed as protagonists in films released on over-the-top (OTT) platforms and (4) what role does the upper-caste-fair male ‘hero’ who has been conspicuously emasculated in these films serve in synthesizing anti-caste gender discourse? To explore these concerns, the article examines the Hindi films Dahaad (2023) and Kathal: The Mystery of Jackfruit (2023), foregrounding a case study of how their representation contributes to public discourse around casteism and Dalit identity in India.
Among Iranian films that address the struggles of youth, Deep Breath (Shahbazi 2003) is widely regarded by critics as one of the most authentic cinematic depictions of Iranian youth in the early 2000s. A particularly notable aspect of the film is the evolving dramatic function of the car as a metaphorical home-shaped by the unique cultural, social and political dimensions of Iranian society. This article examines the car as a mobile, modern and unconventional dwelling in Deep Breath, one that replaces the traditional notion of home. It investigates how the car, serving as an alternative domestic space, allows characters to construct their own emotional geography and provides them with a means of resisting prevailing social norms and state-imposed regulations in Iran.
Since the 1980s, South Indian cinema has frequently focused on the female body, and post-1990s Malayalam films have shown notable changes in the depiction of sexuality and gender. Contemporary films increasingly prioritize pleasure, fantasy and the interplay between aesthetics and gender identity, challenging Laura Mulvey’s concept of the masculine gaze by engaging with the mysterious female body. Drawing on Patricia MacCormack’s idea of ‘cinesexuality’ and feminist film theory, this study explores how women are framed as objects of cinesexual desire within the specific context of item song sequences in Malayalam cinema. Understanding the interaction among gender, desire and visual culture requires revisiting traditional spectatorship theories, such as Laura Mulvey’s male gaze, in light of the changing cultural norms. Item songs in post-1990s Malayalam cinema serve as arenas where the female body is depicted as an object of cinesexual desire, simultaneously upholding patriarchal viewing norms while also creating potential avenues for resistance. The primary inquiry guiding this study is: in what manner do item songs in post-1990s Malayalam films portray the female body as an object of cinesexual desire, and to what extent do these depictions adhere to or contest patriarchal paradigms of cinematic spectatorship? This study employs qualitative textual and discourse analysis of selected films, examined through the lenses of feminist film theory and cinesexuality.
