Sixteenth International Conference on Technology, Knowledge & Society

Abstract

In the process of intercultural communications, the mindset of different cultural groups is very important. Due to people’s inability to directly engage with different cultures, these mentalities are often created by media representations, which are directly related to the way media portrays reality. Among Iranian ethnicities, the Kurds have a special status. The representation of Kurds in Iranian Cinema is of grave significance because of its place in Iranian history. The purpose of this study is to analyze the differences in the ways that Kurds are represented in post-revolutionary Iranian Cinema of the ’80s and the present day through case study of two of the most defining movies of their time which had great connotations about Kurdish people, “Ch” and “Kani Manga” using Hall’s Representation Theory and Fisk’s Semiotics, and it has been analyzed at three levels: descriptive (social codes), representational (technical codes) and ideological (ideological codes). “Kani Manga” mostly emphasizes on cultural differences between Kurdish people and other Iranian ethnic groups. It depicts Kurds as selfish, violent, illogical, and against the revolution. But in “Ch” the movie offers a more diverse representation of the Kurdish people, that they are of different groups, some opposed to the regime, and some not, some violent, and some peaceful. These dramatic different representations can be interpreted as that a radical change has happened to the one-sided and narrow-minded narrative which defined the representation of Kurds in Iranian Cinema. This is an indication that indeed intercultural communication has been increased.