The Films of Rakhshan Banietemad
Edited by Maryam Ghorbankarimi
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Book Presentation:
Rakhshan Banietemad is one of the first female film directors in Iran. This book, the first English language study of her films and career, Iranian director Rakhshan Banietemad contains chapters by some of the most prominent scholars of Iranian cinema, as well as younger scholars with fresh points of view. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, the book devotes special attention to Banietemad’s understudied documentaries and films, including Under the Skin of the City (2000) and Tales (2014), while offering new perspectives on well-known works such as The Blue Veiled (1994) and The May Lady (1997). Focusing on questions of aesthetics and poetics, social realism, gender dynamics and the ‘afterimages’ and ‘counter-memories’ of revolution and war, the book also includes an in depth interview with Banietemad herself.
About the Author:
Dr Maryam Ghorbankarimi is an Associate Professor of Film Studies at Lancaster University. She is the author of A Colourful Presence: The Evolution of Women’s Representation in Iranian Cinema (2015) and her other works includes ReFocus: The Works of Rakhshan Banietemad (2021) and co-edited the I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iranian Cinema (2024).
Press Reviews:
Aspects of Iranian cinema―race, gender, class, social and artistic history―have been blessed with generations of groundbreaking scholarship. Maryam Ghorbankarimi’s edited volume brings together a collection of insightful essays on a seminal figure in Iranian cinema. With impeccable attention to details, full command of archival material, and inquisitive prose, these essays push the boundaries of the whole discipline of cinema studies to unprecedented levels. This book is a model of scholarship for the new generation of cinema studies.
-- Hamid Dabashi, author of Close-Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future
ReFocus: The Films of Rakhshan Banietemad stands as a captivating and conclusive investigation of a cinematic luminary. Whether one is an ardent cinéphile, a devoted scholarly, or basically inquisitive almost the different cluster of human encounters delineated on screen, this compilation is fundamental.
-- Narjess Jafari Langroudi ― Film International
Among volumes on Iranian cinema, sections on women filmmakers’ works are remarkably few. Addressing this gap, Ghorbankarimi’s book brings together brilliant scholarships from various disciplines to explore the films of Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, one of the main post-revolutionary auteurs. This is essential reading for anyone interested in Iranian cinema and an important contribution to feminist film studies in MENA.
-- Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad, SOAS, author of The Politics of Iranian Cinema
See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press
See the complete filmography of Rakhshan Banietemad on the website: IMDB ...
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