Iranian Cinema in Postmodern Costume: How Ghanizadeh’s Maskhareh-baz/ A Hairy Tale (2019) Approaches Postmodern Art

Document Type : Research Papers

Authors

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

10.22099/jps.2021.38804.1121

Abstract

The studies concerning the employment of postmodern techniques in Iranian movies failed to address how postmodern practices can reflect relevant postmodern themes and thoughts. To fill the gap, this paper aims to investigate the significance of utilizing postmodern styles of filmmaking in Iranian cinema by referring to one of the most recent avant-garde productions, Homayoun Ghanizadeh’s Maskhareh-baz/ A Hairy Tale (2019). To find the link between the postmodern form and the content of the movie, it draws on scholars’ views for theorizing postmodernism, particularly Linda Hutcheon. Benefitting from her views, this research reveals how postmodern features and styles of A Hairy Tale, such as metafiction and the intertextual web of references, reflect the uncertain, cynic and ironic condition of human in the postmodern world. The unreliable narrator of the movie, ironically named Danesh/ Knowledge, drowns the film in an intertextual ocean of references raging from classic cinema, literature of the absurd, pop art and historical events. Finally, it concludes that the film is successful in its attempt to portray a barbershop as a microcosm of the postmodern paranoid world, where humans are unable to trust any information they receive. Thus, by depicting human’s skepticism, the film illustrates the ambiguous condition of the postmodern man. 

Keywords


Allen, Graham. Intertextuality. Routledge, 2011.
Amini, Mojtaba (director), Haft. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), TV Channel 3, 1 Nov. 2019.
Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Butler, Jeremy G. Star Texts: Image and Performance in Film and Television. Wayne State University Press, 1991.
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema I: The Movement-Image. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013.
Deo, Kanishka. “The 20 Best Postmodernist Movies of All Time.” Taste of Cinema, 19 Dec. 2017, www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/20-best-postmodernist-movies. Accessed 10 Jan. 2020.
Hairy Tale, A. Directed by Homayoun Ghanizadeh, performances by Saber Abar, Hedieh Tehrani, Ali Nassirian, Babak Hamidian and Reza Kianian. Produced by Ali Mosaffa, Khane-ye-film, 2019.
Hill, John. “Film and Postmodernism.” The Oxford Guide to Film Studies, Edited by John Hill, et al., Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 96-105.
Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. Routledge, 2003.
Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-century Art Forms. University of Illinois Press, 2000.
Imhof, Rüdiger. Contemporary Metafiction: A Poetological Study of Metafiction in English since 1939. Britannica et Americana: 1986.
Kvale, Steinar. “Themes of Postmodernity.” The Truth about the Truth: De-Confusing and Re-Constructing the Postmodern World, Edited by Walt Anderson, 1995, pp. 18-25.
Kenari, Mohammad Jafar and Mostafa Mokhtabad-Amrei. “Kiarostami’s Unfinished Cinema and Its Postmodern Reflections.” The International Journal of Humanities, vol. 17, 2010, pp. 23-37.
Kończak, Joanna. “Film Review: A Hairy Tale (2019) by Homayoun Ghanizadeh.” Asian Movie Pulse, 8 Nov. 2019, asianmoviepulse.com/2019/11/film-review-a-hairy-tale-2019-by-homayoun-ghanizadeh. Accessed 12 Jan. 2020.
Kotzathanasis, Panos. “Film Review: Invasion (2017) by Shahram Mokri.” Asian Movie Pulse, 1 Mar. 2020, asianmoviepulse.com/2019/06/film-review-invasion-2017-by-shahram-mokri. Accessed 11 Jan. 2020.
Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
Marshall, Lee. “A Dragon Arrives!: Berlin Review.” Screen, 19 Feb. 2016, www.screendaily.com/reviews/a-dragon-arrives-berlin-review/5100685.article. Accessed 11 Jan. 2020.
MacFarlane, John. “Aristotle’s Definition of ‘Anagnorisis.’” The American Journal of Philology, vol. 121, no. 3, 2000, pp. 367–383. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1561774. Accessed 28 April 2021.
McHale, Brian. Postmodernist Fiction. Routledge, 2003.
Muecke, Frances. “Foreshadowing and Dramatic Irony in the Story of Dido.” The American Journal of Philology, vol. 104, no. 2, 1983, pp. 134-155.
Naficy, Hamid. “Iranian Cinema under the Islamic Republic.” American Anthropologist, vol. 97, no. 3, 1995, pp. 548-558.
Nilges, M. “The Presence of Postmodernism in Contemporary American Literature.” American Literary History, vol. 27, no. 1, 2014, pp. 186-197.
Payandeh, Hossein. Roman-e Pasamodern va Film: Negahi be Sakhtar va Sana’ate Film-e MIX [The Postmodern Novel and Film: a Monograph on the Structure and Techniques of MIX]. Hermes, 2007.
Payandeh, Hossein. “Salam bar Postmodernism dar Cinema” [Hello to Postmodernism in Cinema].” Honar, vol. 29, pp. 455-461.
Rahimpor Azghadi, Habib (Host), Zavieh. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, IRIB TV Channel 4, 1 Jan. 2014.
Sim, Stuart. Lyotard Dictionary. Edinburgh University Press, 2011.
Siska, William C. “Metacinema: A Modern Necessity.” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 4, 1979, pp. 285–289. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43796115. Accessed 28 April 2021.
Tavasoli, Sara. “Postmodernism in Close-up.” Research in Contemporary World Literature, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 23-39, www.magiran.com/p1420156. Accessed 18 Nov. 2019.
Tsui, Clarence. “Fish & Cat (Mahi Va Gorbeh): Film Review.” Hollywood Reporter, 12 Nov. 2013, www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/fish-cat-mahi-va-gorbeh-655586. Accessed 11 Jan. 2020.
Waugh, Patricia. Metafiction: The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. Routledge, 2002.
Wilde, Alan. Horizons of Assent: Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Ironic Imagination. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981.
Young, Deborah. “Pig (Khook): Film Review.” Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2018, www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/pig-1086893. Accessed 11 Jan. 2020.