Recently, a book titled Foucault at Movies has been published by Ban Publishing, translated by Babak Karimi. Few might have expected Michel Foucault to have articulated views or analyses related to cinema at all, and even the book’s introduction subtly gestures toward this assumption. Foucault in Cinema is a collection of articles and essays that attempt to interpret Michel Foucault’s ideas—those of a philosopher who transformed our understanding of power, the body, surveillance, and truth—in relation to the art of cinema. Rather than offering a purely theoretical reading, the book demonstrates how Foucauldian concepts manifest in narrative structures, images, bodies, space, and power relations within films, and how cinema itself can function as a laboratory for observing relations of power.
This provided an opportunity to revisit Dr. Ali Shariati’s views on cinema. This is not to suggest a comparison between Shariati and Foucault. Shariati did not theorize cinema directly, nor did he engage with it in a professional or theoretical sense. However, through his broader views on art, one can arrive at an interpretation of how he may have understood cinema. In fact, when one speaks of Ali Shariati, cinema might seem among the most distant domains associated with his name and discourse. He spoke extensively about art, and his lectures on the subject have been published in a book devoted to art. Among his views are statements such as: “Art is the manifestation of humanity’s creative power in compensating for, adorning, and continuing existence,” or: “What art does is to create something that does not exist in this life or in nature, but that I need to exist.” He spoke little about cinema as an art form. Nevertheless, Shariati was not alien to cinema. Though he did not address it directly, accounts shared by filmmakers who knew him allow us to glimpse his attitude toward it.
Masoud Kimiai, one of the leading directors of Iran’s New Wave cinema, spoke about his relationship with Shariati and his views on film:
“I knew Dr. Ali Shariati through his books and lectures, and we were occasionally in touch. So my meeting with Dr. Shariati happened well before the screening of Qeysar, though many people don’t know this. I had seen Dr. Shariati several times, but it was on the night of Qeysar’s screening that I saw him from a distance and exchanged greetings. It’s not true when people say Kimiai never met or spoke with Dr. Shariati. I remember he had seen Qeysar and The Cow, and he said that between the two, Qeysar was the film we needed—because he believed Qeysar was a ‘masculine’ and ‘dynamic’ film. He liked Qeysar very much and expressed his appreciation, but I never actually discussed the film with him; the opportunity never arose. Shariati had, however, spoken at length about the film with Abbas Shabaviz and praised its strengths.”
Shariati’s connection to Iranian cinema also took another form: through individuals who were among his followers and later played influential roles as cultural and cinematic administrators after the Revolution. At the time, “Dr. Shariati” had friends and disciples at Hosseiniyeh Ershad who attended his lectures—figures such as Fakhr al-Din Anvar, Seyyed Mohammad Beheshti, and Mohammad Ali Najafi, all of whom later became the first generation of cinema administrators after the Revolution. Mohammad Ali Najafi, best known as the director of the TV series Sarbedaran, spoke of Shariati’s influence on him and on art more broadly:
“During our student years, all artistic fields were monopolized by leftist groups. The best translations of intellectual and sociological texts belonged to them. The intellectual sphere as a whole was dominated by the left, because religious people didn’t accept theater or cinema at all. The great achievement of Dr. Shariati in culture and art was that he gave religious youths like us—those in Islamic associations—the courage to enter the field of culture and art. I clearly remember a day when he gave an example about me and said to the trustees of Hosseiniyeh Ershad: ‘This young man has the courage to commit sin! Do you have such courage?’”
Interestingly, Shariati even attended a theatrical performance at Hosseiniyeh Ershad—where he himself lectured—in the early 1970s. The play was based on Masoud Kimiai’s film Reza Motori. Kimiai recalled:
“One day Dr. Shariati called me and asked if I would allow them to change the film’s ending for the theatrical adaptation. They wanted to alter the scene where Abbas Qarazeh appears. Since they were going to stage it at Hosseiniyeh Ershad, they felt changes were necessary. I didn’t oppose it. I believe the director of that play was Fakhr al-Din Anvar, and the others were either acting on stage or working behind the scenes. Overall, I knew that my views and Shariati’s were not entirely aligned. That’s why we didn’t have regular contact. We saw each other occasionally and talked. And this did not happen on the night of Qeysar’s screening, even though he was present at the cinema.”
Dariush Arjmand is another actor who has often said that one of his greatest honors was being a student of Shariati at university. He has said:
“Dr. Shariati turned the minds of many young people of that era upside down and instilled a sense of doubt in everyone, pushing them to seek answers to their questions.” Arjmand added: “I was the top student in Dr. Shariati’s class, and I was involved in artistic work at Mashhad University. Mr. Daneshvar was also one of the writers of that era—a talented young man. He studied literature, and I studied history in Dr. Shariati’s class.”
He also claimed: “Once, SAVAK asked Dr. Shariati to name his friends, and he mentioned my name. They called Ali Shariati ‘Navvab Safavi,’ and they called me ‘Navvab Safavi’s knife-wielder!’”
Arjmand considers himself deeply influenced by Shariati’s ideas and regards him as a revolutionary figure. He has said: “One sentence of Dr. Shariati has always stayed with me: ‘Even if they tear me limb from limb, I will leave them longing to hear a single “ouch” from me.’ And indeed, he did. He acted according to his beliefs. I was supposed to meet Dr. Shariati in Paris, but fate did not grant him the time.”
Davoud Mirbagheri is another director with a special devotion to Dr. Shariati. He has said that his series Imam Ali was influenced by Shariati’s views on Imam Ali and by the lecture Ali Is Alone. Mirbagheri has emphasized that he is a serious reader of Shariati’s works and that Shariati’s writings and ideas introduced new language and concepts into religious thought.
Among Iranian directors, Hassan Fathi has expressed particular admiration for Dr. Shariati and once said that he intended to make a documentary about him. Regarding the timing of such a project, Fathi stated:
“Making this film definitely requires extensive research, field studies, and library work, and until I complete that stage, I cannot set a timeline. These investigations take time. So although I am seriously interested in making this film, I cannot yet specify when it will be made.”
Fathi also dedicated his series Shahrzad to Ali Shariati. On the occasion of the second season’s release, he wrote on his personal page:
“The heroes of our lives are often figures who inspire us during a particular stage of our existence, but after we pass that stage, they no longer hold the same appeal. Yet among all the heroes of my life, there is one enduring and beloved figure to whom I owe my intellectual, spiritual, ethical, and artistic awakening more than to anyone else. Now that the fortieth anniversary of this great man of culture and thought coincides with the broadcast of the second season of Shahrzad, I wish, as the creator of this work, to dedicate my share to the name, memory, and great spirit of Dr. Ali Shariati.”
Among Dr. Shariati’s children, his eldest daughter, Sousan Shariati, has a strong interest in cinema and follows it seriously. She has lectured on films, expressed critical views, and written for journals and newspapers. Among her notable writings are an essay on Abbas Kiarostami’s cinema published in Iran-e Farda magazine and a piece on Asghar Farhadi’s films published in Shargh newspaper. Ahmad Gholami, editor-in-chief of Shargh, once interviewed her about the film Sorkhpoost (The Warden), under the headline “Salvation by the Gallows.”
Ali Shariati died young. Perhaps had he lived longer, we would have heard more of his reflections on cinema—or perhaps the Shariati we know today would have been someone altogether different.
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