Social dramas have made Iranian films and their directors renowned at international festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival, but at home it is comedy that sells and has long been the favored genre.
There are about 750 screens in the Islamic republic, and going to the movies is a preferred leisure activity for people seeking distraction from often difficult daily lives.
While an Iranian film may be in competition at this year’s Cannes, it was comedy that monopolized the top six box office places in the Iranian 2023-2024 year that ended in March.
Photo: AFP
During those 12 months, 28 million cinema tickets were sold in Iran.
“These films offer a simple plot and structure that make them accessible to everyone,” movie critic Houshang Golmakani said.
It is a generic formula that works well and generally has stereotypical characters — pretty women, young people wanting a better life, a “Don Juan” and clumsy pious men.
“We need to laugh because the social-economic situation is difficult,” 47-year-old trader Milad said, speaking outside a cinema in the capital, Tehran. “I go to the movies and can forget all my troubles for a few hours.”
Elaheh Kargar, a 24-year-old nurse, said that she “naturally chooses a comedy” so she can “have a good time” at the cinema.
Take one of the big successes of the past few months, the comedy Hotel.
The film tells the tale, replete with misunderstandings and mix-ups, of a man who hides his fiancee from his former wife so he can borrow money from his ex-wife’s aunt.
It was filmed on the island of Kish, where Iranians like to recharge their batteries in a relaxed setting inspired by Dubai just a 12-hour ferry ride across the Gulf.
Hotel was seen by 6.2 million people, but even it was overtaken by Fossil, which, at 7.5 million, became one of the top-viewed movies in the history of Iranian cinema.
Fossil chronicles the adventures of a group of musicians before and after the Islamic revolution of 1979, after which pop music was banned for more than two decades.
It plays on nostalgia for the golden age of popular music by covering hits sung by actors resembling Iranian stars of the 1950s to 1980s, many of whom went into exile in the US.
“When we screened Fossil the house was always full,” said one employee at a Tehran cinema who asked not to be identified. “This film revived cinema, which had been in recession because of COVID. If we screened it again now, the house would still be full.”
Fossil was not a hit with Iran’s ultra-conservatives and did not make them laugh.
The Kayhan newspaper raged that it promoted Shah-era culture, “promiscuity” and “Westernization,” and urged officials to “block the cultural influence of enemies” on younger generations.
Many Iranian comedies use satire to criticize the inflexibility of the country’s rulers toward young people.
Dynamite recounts the setbacks of two Shiite seminarians who move into a flat and become neighbors with a cannabis dealer and two young female Instagram influencers.
The directors obey the restrictions imposed by the Islamic republic: women should wear head scarves, men and women must not touch each other and alcohol cannot be shown.
Yet that does not prevent them from mocking official cultural values such as “protecting the family at all costs,” said Golmakani, adding that such movies “end without really harming these values.”
The authorities tolerate comedies, because “they respond to the needs of the population,” Golmakani added.
However, the Iranian film in competition at Cannes this year, The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Mohammad Rasoulof, will not be shown at home as its director fled abroad after being sentenced to five years in jail.
Iran’s cinema-going public has few choices because of the low number of foreign productions, particularly Hollywood movies, shown locally.
The country is also subject to international sanctions and has no diplomatic relations with the US.
People can also see serious works by, among others, Asghar Farhadi, Oscar-winning director of A Separation, and Saeed Roustaee who made Law of Tehran.
However, three 2022 films that drew international acclaim — Leila’s Brothers, World War III and Beyond the Wall — were not allowed to be screened, meaning enthusiasts had to download them.
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