Shot entirely from the interior of a car by cameras mounted on the dashboard, Ten records a series of private conversations between the driver and her passengers as they ride through the streets of Tehran. Each interaction is segmented into the film’s ten chapters whereby Kiarostami constructs an elliptical narrative centered on the driver, a newly remarried divorcee, as she questions her understanding of love relationships, morals, and personal fulfillment through the subsequent interactions with her son and the women she encounters.
Kiarostami’s unconventional cinematic techniques create an intimate mise-en-scène and improvisational atmosphere that provides a rare insight into the diverse experiences, perspectives and emotions of Middle Eastern women at various junctures in their lives and who represent a socioeconomic cross-section of Iranian society. From the bourgeois protagonist with feminist inclinations, her sister who is abandoned by her husband of seven years, the friend rejected by her fiancé, a piously devout elderly woman, and a prostitute, Ten illuminates the abundance of ways morals, relationships and the qualities of human nature are conceived in relation to the specific context from which those understandings are derived. Love relationships, religion, personal identity, and cultural values are not static but are constantly negotiated to address changing circumstances. Kiarostami thus highlights the dynamic features of Iranian society through the daily struggles of women in an Islamic culture and their latitude in determining their level of modesty, social mobility, and adherence to cultural restrictions.
While Ten contains references to the social and political regulations regarding the status of wome...
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...ransformations of Iranian society during the 1970s.This can be viewed as something akin to what James Gelvin referred to as the “cross-fertilization of ideas” used by Islamic modernists in the early twentieth century who argued that the incorporation of certain elements of Western culture and modernity could be reconciled with Islamic practice through the application of ijtihad. This tradition of cultural appropriation and reconceptualization to fit the ends determined by Iranians (other Middle Eastern societies) is thus a modern continuation of long-standing historical practices of adapting to broader international developments.
Works Cited
Mania Akbari, “Chapter 10,” Ten, directed by Abbas Kiarostami (2002: Tehran, Iran/France: Zeitgeist Films, 2003).
James L. Gelvin, “The Modern Middle East: A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 136-139.
In the novel All The Shah’s Men we are introduced to Iran, and the many struggles and hardships associated with the history of this troubled country. The Iranian coup is discussed in depth throughout the novel, and whether the Untied States made the right decision to enter into Iran and provide assistance with the British. If I were to travel back to 1952 and take a position in the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) for the sole purpose of examining the American Foreign Intelligence, I would have to conclude that the United States should have examined their options more thoroughly, and decided not to intervene with Iran and Mossadegh. I have taken this position after great analysis, which is something that Eisenhower and his staff never did. By discussing the history of Iran, the Anglo-Iranian oil company, and Document NSC-68 I will try to prove once and for all that going through with the coup in Iran was a terrible mistake made by the United States.
With such a unanimous resentment, particularly in the dominating religious sect of Iran, it is important to address the ideologies within the religion enforce the country’s patriarchal social structure, i.e. the “form of social organization in which males dominate females” (text 38). Furthermore, with the Islamic Revolution of 1979, these attitudes were the driving force behind many of the discriminatory laws that confined women in Iran to a life defined by its limitations.
Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2000.
The film Wendy and Lucy, directed by Kelly Reichardt, presents a sparse narrative. The film has been criticised for its lack of background story, and as a short film, much of the story is left to the viewer to infer from what is presented in the plot. However, Wendy and Lucy is able to depict the intimate relationship between Wendy and her dog as well as reflecting more broadly on the everyday, and commenting on the current economic state of the film’s setting in America. This essay will examine how film form contributes to the viewer’s awareness of the story in Wendy and Lucy and allows a deeper understanding of the themes presented. The aspects of mise-en-scene, shot and editing and sound in the film will be explored.
One of the most famous contemporary ethnographic studies of women and gender within Islam is Erika Friedl’s Women of Deh Koh, in which her main concern seems to be providing he...
Gelvin, James L. The Modern Middle East: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.
Over the course of the last century, the Islamic Republic of Iran (formerly known as Persia) has seen colonialism, the end of a dynasty, the installation of a government by a foreign power, and just over three decades ago, the popular uprising and a cleric-led revolution. These events preceded what could be considered the world’s first Islamic state, as politics and fundamentalist religion are inextricably linked in contemporary Iran. Looking at Iran from the mid 1940’s until the present day, one can trace the path that led to the rise of fundamental Islam in Iran in three distinct periods. The first is that which began with the rise of secular nationalism and the decline of Islam. In the second, the secular, western-friendly government eventually gave way to the Islamic revival in the form of a government takeover by hard-line clerics and disillusioned, fundamentalist youth; both motivated and led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Rule of Iran by these fundamentalist clerics then led to the formation of the fundamentalist Islamic theocracy that governs present-day Iran. The current government has some democratic appearances, but all real power is in the hands of the supreme leader, an Ayatollah who is chosen by the Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics chosen by the Guardian Council. With the Iranian Revolution, political Islam was born, with the fundamentalists holding the reins of power in Iran to the present day.
Lewis, Bernard. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years. New York: Scribner,
Trice, M 2008, The Middle East: A gigantic Task for the New Administration. Wiley, N.Y.
Ludwig, P. (1999). Iranian Nation and Islamic Revolutionary Ideology. Die Welt des islams. 39(2). 183-217.
The nexus between Islam and Iran is a complex one. Islam was brought to Iran via Arab-Islamic conquest in 650 AD and has played a shifting, anomalous role in this nation-state ever since. The ideas of nationalism, secularism, religion, and revolution are unique in this Muslim country. Iranians, unlike many of their neighbors, hold on very strongly to their pre-Islamic roots and achievements; sentiments of nationalism are apparent throughout Iranian history and in the everyday conversations of Iranians. In order to illustrate the role of Islam in Iran and the contemporary Iranian situation, I will analyze the concept of an Islamic state, the legitimacy of Islam in modern-day Iran with notes on the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the compatibility of Islam and Democracy, changes in access to information in Iran today, and recent movements and trends in Iranian’s youth population.
Griffith, William E. “The Revial of Islamic Fundamentalism: the Case of Iran.” International Security. Volume 4, Issue 1, 1979, 132-138.
Maynes, Charles. "The Middle East in the Twenty-First Century." Middle East Journal 52.1 (1998): 9-16. JSTOR. Web. 6 June 2011.
Caramel is a comedy/drama film that takes place in Lebanon’s capital Beirut. The film talks about the unique issues faced by five Lebanese women who live in Beirut. Four of the women work in a beauty salon together. Layale, one of the women who work in the beauty salon is in a relationship with a married man. They meet in secrete in his car and when she speaks to him on the phone, she hides out in the bathroom. He is married to a women who loves him very much and refuses to leave his wife for Layale. His wife is very nice and has no idea that her husband is having an affair with the women who waxes her body. In the meantime a Lebanese police officer is in love with Layale. Layale lived on the hopes that one day her boyfriend will leave his wife for her until she gave up on him and started to see the police officer’s love for her. As a Middle Eastern man Nisrine’s boyfriend would never leave his wife for his mistress. Middle Eastern ...