Rahpooye Honar/Performing Arts

Rahpooye Honar/Performing Arts

Diaspora Cinema: The Conflict or Interaction of the Filmmaker with National Identity and Globalization

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 MA Candidate in Cinema, Kamal-Ol-Molk University, Nowshahr, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Advanced Studies of Art, School of Visual Arts, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
The relationship between “national identity” and “globalization” reflects the tension involved in the redefinition of a nation’s identity amid the sweeping current of global interactions. Globalization, as a phenomenon that weakens geographical boundaries, has made a re-examination of national identity essential and has created a space for interaction between the two. Diaspora cinema, through the narratives of migrants’ lives, helps to strengthen differences and re-examine the sense of national belonging in a global context. There is little research specifically addressing the interactive or conflicting relationship of filmmakers with national identity and globalization. The present study, with an applied objective, seeks to fill this academic gap, with its main issue being the analysis of the interactive or conflicting relationship of the filmmaker with their national identity in the context of globalization. The research method is qualitative content analysis by means of a case study. Two films by Bahman Ghobadi — “A Time for Drunken Horses” and “Turtles Can Fly” — have been selected as suitable cases, and, with the help of Atlas. ti software, such components as underground and subsistence economy, travel and immigration, ethnic identity, cultural and linguistic confrontation, class identity and social inequalities, and social critique were identified through a systematic process based on a review of literature, thus forming the conceptual framework. The findings indicate that, from a general perspective, the relationship between “national identity” and “globalization” in the context of diaspora cinema is not necessarily conflicting; rather, under suitable conditions, they may complement each other. Globalization provides an opportunity to re-examine national identity, while diaspora, through reflecting the lived experience of immigrants, contributes to the redefinition of national belonging in the global arena.
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  • Receive Date 15 March 2025
  • Revise Date 06 June 2025
  • Accept Date 10 June 2025