Iran: The country the West came to know through film

"In the absence of a free press, however, the creative explosion of Iran's film industry has served to make the rest of the world understand the lack of freedoms that stifles Iran. Over the years, this has led to the exile of leading Iranian filmmakers, who now reside across Europe."

"If stories about women and love were forbidden, children were used as protagonists, creating allegories that defied censorship. The first well-known name and the one who achieved stardom was the late Abbas Kiarostami (1940-2016). By the early-1990s, his films were already being screened in Europe."

"Kiarostami often shot in rural settings, with conversations frequently taking place in cars, in a fable-like tone underscored by the ambiguity of the narrative. This was his style, certainly but also the best way to circumvent the shadow of the ayatollahs."

After Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the government banned depictions of women and love from cinema while attempting to use film as propaganda. Despite these restrictions, Iranian filmmakers developed innovative techniques to overcome censorship, employing children as protagonists and rural settings with allegorical narratives. Abbas Kiarostami pioneered this approach, achieving international recognition and winning the Palme d'Or in 1997 for Taste of Cherry. His distinctive style featured conversations in cars and ambiguous narratives that circumvented government restrictions. Other filmmakers like Mohsen Makhmalbaf followed similar paths. Iranian cinema's creative explosion paradoxically exposed the regime's oppressive nature to the world, leading many directors into exile across Europe.

Read at english.elpais.com