Iranian Cinema with Psychoanalysis: Interpreter of Desires

Combining Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, Iranian Shi’ite thought, and Islamicate sexualities, Iranian Cinema with Psychoanalysis: The Interpreter of Desires provides a groundbreaking analysis of the logic of desire and sexuality in key films of contemporary Iranian cinema, arguing that there is a profound, albeit surprising, correlation between post-revolutionary Iranian cinema and psychoanalysis that has remained unthought.

Looking through the prism of psychoanalysis, Farshid Kazemi argues that censorship on the representation and expression of sexual desire in Iranian films has, contrary to the desired effect, produced a cinema of desire. This book is the first to provide an analysis of the unconscious structure of desire and sexuality operative in post-revolutionary Iranian cinema, demonstrating that psychoanalytic literature is uniquely positioned to shed light on this aspect of film. Kazemi uncovers the hidden libidinal economy of Iranian cinema by exposing the fact that despite the State censor’s desire to suppress desire, it has inadvertently inscribed desire in its formal structure. The book offers a compelling and innovative examination of Iranian cinema through a psychoanalytic lens, contributing significantly to the field of film studies.

Iranian Cinema with Psychoanalysis will be of great interest to academics and scholars of film studies, psychoanalytic studies, Lacanian theory, film theory, Iranian cinema, global cinema, Iranian studies, and Middle Eastern studies.

Farshid Kazemi is Sessional Lecturer in Cinema Studies at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Edinburgh. His research interests combine an interdisciplinary and theoretical approach to film and media studies, film theory, Iranian studies, and Islamic and Middle Eastern studies.