Representation of women and intra family relationships in Iranian movies of 2000s

Abstract

Family is a widespread social institution through which the early universe and its phenomena are understood. It seems that family and intra family relationships has changed these years and has taken a new form. Iranian cinema by creating stereotypes of relationships, personality and positions plays an important role in Iranian people’s mental construction of family and its relations. In this regard, this research seeks to describe the representation of vertical and horizontal relationships of family members in the movies, interpret the actions of family members in crisis situations and problem solving and interpret the link of family on movies with social and political conditions in 2000s. The method used in this research was narrative analysis with Chatman theory. Five films named The Last Supper (1380), Fever (1382), Wet Dream (1384), Canaan (1386) and Seven Minutes to Fall (1388) were selected from the 2000s movies. The results indicate that represented family is in crisis. Family crisis is rooted in individualism and unclear roles and relationships between family members and in most cases leads to divorce. Meanwhile, Iranian cinema in a crisis situation either temporarily delays the crisis by returning to traditions or reinforces the crisis by creating ambiguity in the relationships and roles, instead of solving the problems under study.

Keywords

• family
• iranian cinema 2000s
• narrative analysis
• representation