Jamsheed Akrami • Iran • 2000

An examination of critical issues of Iranian cinema.

Film scholar Dr. Jamsheed Akrami weighs the critical issues of Iranian cinema by framing several key questions and providing informed responses through commentary, scene analysis, and interviews with top Iranian filmmakers. In Friendly Persuasion, he examines Iranian cinema after the 1979 revolution.

A diverse group of Iranian auteurs are interviewed, including new-wave visionaries Abbas Kiarostami, Dariush Mehrjui, Bahram Bayzai, and Masoud Kimiaie as well as the post-revolutionaries Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi, Rakhshan Bani Etemad, Majid Majidi, and Tahmineh Milani. Here, questions focus on international flowering, censorship codes, the role of the government, the representation of women, and a world-class children's film movement.