Following an introduction delineating the histories of the film industries of the countries that make up the Middle East and Central Asia – including Iran, Turkey, and the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – both books contain interviews stretching over a decade, which position the filmmakers and their creative concerns within the social or political context of their respective countries. The striking variety of approaches toward each interview creates a rich diversity of tone and opens the door to a better understanding of images of 'otherness' in film. In addition to transcripts of the interviews, each chapter also includes stills from important films discussed, biographical information about the filmmakers and filmographies of their works.Gönül Dönmez-Colin offers in these expanded editions a carefully researched and richly detailed firsthand account of the developments and trends in these regional film industries that is sure to be appreciated by film scholars and researchers of the Middle East and Central Asia.
Gönül Dönmez-Colin is a film scholar specializing in the cinemas of Central Asia and the Middle East. She is the author of Turkish Cinema: Identity, Distance, and Belonging and Women, Islam and Cinema; and the editor of The Cinema of North Africa and the Middle East.
Introduction IRANRakhshan Bani-Etemad The Hidden Half Bahram Beyza’i The Other Side of the Story Abolfazl Jalili Treading the Thin Line: Fiction as Documentary Mahmud KalariValuable Lessons of Camera Abbas Kiarostami Life and Nothing But…Reality Without InterruptionMajid Majidi Refugees in Love and Life Mohsen Makhmalbaf Portrait of the Revolutionary as an Artist: Take One Take Two Dariush Mehrjui From Social Realism to Dramas of the Interior Tahmineh Milani The Real Identity of WomenJafar Panahi A Place of their OwnTURKEYKutluğ Ataman As Many Centres as Individuals Handan İpekçi Hidden Faces Semih Kaplanoğlu Fragments From Life in Reverse Erden Kıral Exile’s Return Many Faces of Truth Settling of Accounts A Question of Conscience Ali Özgenturk Film-maker in Times of Strife: A Journey into Self Nostalgia for True Love Tayfun Pirselimoğlu New Voices Raising Old Concerns Portraits from the Periphery Yeşim Ustaoğlu Taboos Can Also Be Broken The Journey of Unlikely Souls Who am I? Pandora’s Box Atıf Yılmaz Batıbeki Whose is the Gaze?