Abstract

The internationally acclaimed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf has had a highly dynamic artistic evolution. When he first started making films after the Islamic Revolution, he supported his country's regime with his highly propaganda tinged work which carried a very dogmatic view of Islam. Gradually however, he became disillusioned with the politics of the Iranian government and his filmmaking shifted as he became inspired by the great Persian poets, namely Rumi. His films now make use of poetic and mystical imagery to convey more open and relativistic meanings. Much standard poetic imagery which is inspired by the Persian literary tradition has been translated to cinematic imagery to create his version of a poetic cinema. However, his films have remained imbued with spirituality, and his faith in God is as strong as ever, but in a more open sense. Western critics and scholars have often failed to see this dimension of his filmography, and this thesis attempts to shed some light on these aspects in five of the films he made between 1991 and 2001; Time of Love (1991), Gabbeh (1996), A Moment of Innocence (1996), The Silence (1998) and Kandahar (2001)