Revolution, Home, and Privacy: A Study on the Cinematic Narrative of Home and Privacy ‎Before and After the 1979 Revolution in Iran


Pouya Morshedi, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

This research compares the changes in the representation of public and private spaces in Iranian cinema before and after the revolution. The inseparability of social and spatial processes is key in discussing the relationship between home, privacy, and revolution. The reciprocal relationship between cinema, society, and the state can demonstrate how changes in society and state are manifested. The field of cinema, with all its actors (directors, actors, staff, producers, etc.), is influenced by the changes in society and state. By introducing a model that illustrates the relationship between cinema, society, and the state, I discuss how the representation of public and private spaces in relation to home has changed due to the 1979 revolution in Iran. The emergence of Islamic codes of modesty as law and restrictions in showing private spaces, intimacy, and images of women and their interactions with men impacted the representation of spaces (public and private) in post-revolution cinema. To explore these changes, I conducted an ethnographic content analysis of 30 pre-revolution and 30 post-revolution Iranian films produced in Iran between 1969 and 1999. In this comparison, I focus on four topics in relation to home, public, and private space. First, I discuss the borders between public and private space and the materialistic and non-materialistic aspects of the borders. Then, I discuss the process of entering a home and interactions related to this process. The extension of the public space to the private space (specifically home) is the next topic that I discuss, and then, I illustrate how the representation of intimacy in both private and public spaces changed by the occurrence of the 1979 revolution.

This paper will be presented at the following session: