سید مصطفی مختاباد امریی

Kiarostami’s unfinished cinema emphasizes the importance of audiences’ involvement in a movie by using postmodern images. Some essential points of critically reading his, so-called half-created cinema, could be summarized as self-reflexive style, diagrammatical perspectives, in-between narratives,and Individual minimalism. The main postmodern achievement of this cinema is focusing on the process of creating meaning through the experience of film. Furthermore, the close-ups function as separate independent units that are constantly generating their implicit affections. In this respect, Kiarostami’s unusual works are interpretable by Deleuze’ some neologism like affection-image. The films are some affective micro-dramas formed in a gap between the audiences’ receptions and the close-ups. Despite their postmodern reflections, unfinished movies have no strict disciplines that may limit the process of creating meaning. This paper attempts to present a new approach of reading Kiarostami as an increasing global interest.

-The term “Ta’ziyeh” refers to an Iranian dramatic genre which might be compared to the Western Passion Play and is the only indigenous drama of the entire Islamic world. This ritual drama has both an Islamic and a Persian heritage, the central theme of which is the tragic and heroic martyrdom of Imam Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and the third Imam of Shi’ite in the desert of Karbala in 680 A.D. Shiites believe that Imam Husayn sacrificed his life to be their Intercessor on the Day of Judgment. The history of Ta’ziyeh did not begin with the events at Karbala rather it dates back to pre-Islamic culture as well as the dramatic expressions of both the Memorial of Zarer, a religious epic from the Sassanid era, (226-652 A.D.), and the Tragedy of Siyavush, a work from ancient Iran, which precedes the Ta’ziyeh play by 1,200 years. The tradition continued from an early processional form to the Magtal-Khani (a recital of martyrdom stories), until it took a dramatic shape. Further, both the playwrights and the structure of the Takiyeh performance building, its performance site, contributed to the evolution of Ta’ziyeh. In this paper, the emphasis is to demonstrate the character of Ta’ziyeh, its foundation and, the development of its various elements. It also attempts to reveal, from an objective stance, its value to a people who embrace it as a kind of ritual, both a holy and national art form. Ta’ziyeh is a kind of ritual drama which has fascinated some of the world’s most famous theatre historians, critics, and performers, who view in it some elements of the postmodern theatre.