40 MIDDLE EAST REPORT 271 ■ SUMMER 2014 Debating the Iran-Iraq War on Film Narges Bajoghli F or supporters of the Islamic Republic, it is the Iran-Iraq war, and not the 1979 revolution, that evokes the true spirit of the Islamic Republic. In 1979, the plethora of political groups that poured into the streets was united in the desire to get rid of the US-backed Shah, but divided as to the shape of post-revolutionary society. Only after the outbreak of the “imposed war” with Iraq (1980–1988) were Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his fellow clerics able to consolidate the Islamic Republic as a state. The war allowed the regime to imprison the opposition for reasons of “national security” and to mobilize the population in defense of the revolution as the regime defined it. Key to the propaganda effort were documentary and feature films, shown in cinemas and on television, that depicted the “imposed war” as an epochal battle of righ- teous Islamic forces against the “infidel” regime of Saddam Hussein. The Chronicles of Victory series by Morteza Avini, which aired on national television throughout the eight- year war, was the most famous such production. Ever since the war ended, the official discourse of the regime, as communicated through state-run media, has sought to preserve the sacredness of the war as a symbol and keep it off-limits to the interpretive gaze of others. The task has never been easy: Ayatollah Khomeini, after all, repeatedly vowed not to quit the battlefield until an Islamic govern- ment was established in Baghdad in place of Saddam. The surprise ceasefire of 1988 left many soldiers, perhaps particularly those most devoted to the regime, feeling betrayed, since Saddam was still in power and the front lines were almost exactly where they were in 1982, when the Iraqis were driven out of Iranian territory. Already in 1988, the character of Haji Pakdel voiced these sentiments in Marriage of the Blessed, written and directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who was identified as an “Islamic” filmmaker before he became famous in the West as a quietly transgres- sive auteur. Many Iranians were conscious, moreover, that the post-1982 phase of the war was not so “imposed”—the belief has grown over time that the Khomeini regime ordered the push into Iraqi territory in order to drag out the fighting and thus protect itself from domestic challengers. In the 1990s, directors such as Ebrahim Hatamikia and Kamal Tabrizi made films in the vein of Makhmalbaf’s that subtly challenged the official version of events. Today, however, those who wish to sanctify the Iran- Iraq war in the public memory face bigger problems. Two thirds of Iranians are under the age of 35, too young to remember the war in detail and, judging by the recur- rent protest movements since 1999, less and less willing to accept the regime’s word on faith. After the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential election, hardline conservatives were ascendant. These men thought they could restore the war to its hallowed status in Iranian culture by suppressing all other views, however faintly alternative. The state confiscated Morteza Avini’s work after the disputed 2009 presidential election, for example, and Ahmadinejad loyalists forced the cadre of filmmakers from Avini’s foundation out of work. It was a familiar tale in Ahmadinejad’s second term, when paranoia ran high and cultural producers with visions of a more open Islamic Republic were cast aside. But the Ahmadinejad-era crackdown was hardly a complete success. On television, on film, in newspapers and in other public forums, a vibrant discussion began about the war and how it is depicted in state-sanctioned cultural production. The discussion continues today after the hardliners lost the presidency. Most of this conversation takes place in Persian and is not subtitled for distribution Narges Bajoghli is a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at New York University and a documentary ilmmaker at the school’s Culture and Media Program.