Hybrid aesthetics and intersectional narratives : The shifting landscape of underground Iranian cinema

This paper examines the shifting aesthetics of underground Iranian cinema through a comparative analysis of Bahman Ghobadi’s No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009) and Panah Panahi’s Hit the Road (2021). Iranian underground cinema, particularly since the late 20th century, navigates a fraught terrain of censorship and global visibility. Ghobadi’s documentary-styled exploration of Tehran’s illegal rock music scene and Panahi’s road movie probing themes of exile and displacement reveal a shared use of hybrid aesthetics, blending neo-realist techniques, reflexive narratives, and digital innovations. Drawing on Hamid Naficy’s concept of “accented cinema” and Homi Bhabha’s hybridity framework, this paper explores how these films negotiate between local cultural specificity and global cinematic language while grappling with the complexities of marginalization and cultural survival. By foregrounding underrepresented voices and marginalized communities, Persian Cats employs digital filmmaking to expose Tehran’s vibrant yet precarious underground music scene, creating a platform for intersectional experiences that intertwine class, gender, and generational tensions within a repressive socio-political context. Hit the Road, meanwhile, integrates sonic and visual elements to mediate between internal exile, familial dynamics, and physical displacement, capturing the nuances of generational trauma and muted resistance. Both works reflect the ongoing transformation of Iranian underground cinema in response to transnational influences, digital distribution platforms, and the constraints of state surveillance. Through this analysis, the paper examines how underground Iranian cinema innovates aesthetic and narrative strategies to reflect the layered complexities of cultural identity, intersectionality, and representation in the post-national and digital era, crafting narratives that resonate both locally and globally. Maryam Ghorbankarimi is an Senior Lecturer of Film Studies at Lancaster University. Her research examines the representation of women in front of and behind the camera, with a focus on Iranian cinema. She is the author of A Colourful Presence: The Evolution of Women’s Representation in Iranian Cinema (2015) and her other works includes ReFocus: The Works of Rakhshan Banietemad (2021) and co-edited the I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iranian Cinema (2024).