An investigation of evolutions in representation of war in Sacred Defense with emphasis on Rasoul Mollaqolipour’s works

Subject Areas : Journal of Cultural Management

Ali Azadian ¹ , Hamid Ghasemi ²

1 - دانش آموخته کارشناس ارشد مدیریت امور فرهنگی . دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد علوم تحقیقات تهران، ایران مسئول مکاتبات
2 - عضو هیئت علمی و استادیار دانشگاه پیام نور کرج، ایران

Received: 2014-07-28 Accepted : 2014-11-19 Published : 2014-10-23

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Abstract :

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Media and mass communication have developed in quite novel fashions in the present era, and drastically influenced all developments of human society. Given the expansion and impact of the media, the present study is an attempt, through focusing on cinema industry especially cinema of the Sacred Defense, to explore the evolution in manners of representing the war with an emphasis on Rasoul Mollaqolipour’s cinematic works. Drawing upon the representation theory and Stuart Hall, the paper examines the representation of war in three periods of War, Reconstruction, and Reformism.METHODOLOGY: In general, the study is descriptive in strategy and uses content analysis in methodology; it is cross-sectional, present-oriented; in purpose and nature, it is applied, and in terms of data collection, it is quantitative. The sample population includes Mollaqolipour’s repertoire of 15 films, among which three films of Ofoq, Hiva, and Mazraeh Pedari comprise the experimental group.FINDINGS: our findings indicated that the director in Ofoq, which represented the War period, concerned with representation of the wish of martyrdom and volunteer inscriptions to go to war fronts; it represented the enemy as the devil, while it represented Iranian soldiers as forces of good who fought for the cause of righteousness. Hiva, which represented the Reconstruction period, is a focus on social evils, the bitter post-war realities, and reviews the war from a critical perspective, depicting the whims and lack of sympathy of soldiers. Ultimately, Mazraeh Pedari, which represented the period of Reformism, is a representation of social frustrations and dissatisfaction with the status quo after the war.RESULTS: the director has worked laboriously to create a harmony between social milieu of each period mentioned above and the representation of the events of the same periods. The findings bear clear testimonies to this fact.