Franco-Iranian cinema

Abstract

The history of Franco-Iranian cinematic exchanges is long and complex, with its roots stretching back to the earliest days of film. This chapter will explore the evolution of Franco-Iranian cinema, highlighting the significance of the pairing at key moments in a traditional narrative of French film history, as well as examining the ways in which the relationship plays out through funding and festivals, giving voice to a wider set of cultural and political narratives in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The article seeks to explore the extent to which we can see a sustained pattern of creative intersections emerging and the ways in which ‘Franco-Iranian film’ can meaningfully be understood in the context of twenty-first-century cinéma-monde.