3/4 Lecture: The Interpreter of Desires: Iranian Cinema with Psychoanalysis

Combining Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, Iranian Shi’ite thought, and Islamicate sexualities, Iranian Cinema with Psychoanalysis: The Interpreter of Desires provides an 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 (Lacanian) 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 censors’ desire to suppress desire, it has inadvertently inscribed desire in its formal structure. The book presents a compelling and innovative examination of Iranian cinema through a psychoanalytic lens, making a significant contribution to the field of film studies.

Dr. Farshid Kazemi is Adjunct Lecturer in Film Studies at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University. His research interests combine an interdisciplinary and theoretical approach to Film and media studies, film theory, Iranian Studies, and Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. He holds a PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Edinburgh. He has published several articles and book chapters on Iranian cinema, psychoanalytic film theory/feminist film theory in journals such as Camera Obscura, The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iranian Cinema. His book on the film A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night was published by Liverpool University Press in 2021.