Plays and Films of Bahram Beyzaie

Bahram Beyzaie is one of Iran's leading playwrights and auteur filmmakers. This book examines several of Beyzaie's films and plays and their preoccupation with the modalities and transformations of Iranian contemporary historical and mythical identity from different perspectives. The chapters analyse Beyzaie's influential plays such as <i>Arash</i> and <i>So Dies Pahlevan Akbar</i> and his filmic magnum opuses such as <i>The Crow</i> <i>Bashu the Little Stranger</i> and <i>Killing Mad Dogs</i> from a range of critical perspectives including ecofeminist sociopolitical new-historicist archetypal and psychoanalytical readings. They also explore Beyzaie's dialogue with filmic genres such as noir different Iranian languages such as Gilaki Iranian epics and ritual practices such as <i>ta'ziyeh</i> plays and <i>javanmardi</i> chivalry cults. Together the chapters show how Beyzaie's works negotiate narratives of belonging and undermine the dominant exclusionist discourses in Iran and how they use the resources of Iranian folk and performance traditions to comment on the position of women children intellectuals and minorities in society.