‘I am them and they are me’: the transnational body as collective in Iranian women’s cinema

Abstract

ABSTRACT Women’s bodies have often been used as metonymic, standing for the nation and its ideologies. In exploring both narrative and documentary style filmmaking, I turn to two films: Gilaneh (2006) by Rakhshan Banietemad and A Moon for my Father (2019) co-directed by Mania Akbari and Douglas White. In Gilaneh, Banietemad codifies the maternal to symbolise the nation, but only to subvert and critique the state’s neglect of the forgotten mother. By imagining war beyond the borders of Iran, Banietemad also imagines the mother figure across the nation, giving her international significance. In A Moon for my Father Akbari features her own body and battle with breast cancer. Even in the film’s most intimate moments, Akabri reflects on and connects herself to the women’s movement in Iran. In their conceptualisation of women’s bodies, I argue that both Banietemad and Akbari extend the singular body beyond its national boundaries, calling for and insisting upon an intersectional and collective feminism.