Walkthrough of Iran’s top-grossers post-revolution

The Islamic Revolution, having been a turning point in the fate of the Iranian nation, coincided with a major shift in arts production, including cinema. ifilm reviews best sellers at the box office, in a series of articles.

1- ‘The Stone's Trip’: 1978

Just a year before the victory of the revolution, in one of the innumerous moves by the nation to depict the tyranny it was undergoing, the screenplay was depicted in a rural setting.

It enjoys the very religious, rebellious intonation that a post-revolution flick would, which is a wonder for a film produced under the toppled monarch’s censorship.

At the time, not only works of art, but also people’s privacy were subject to inspection by the regime’s intelligence forces, let alone a screenplay of such explicit rebellion.

Early after the Islamic revolution, a multitude of movies centering around the lord-villager relationships were made for approximately five years in a row. No wonder most of those movies were inspired by ‘The Stone's Trip’.

The flick starts with the arrival of a gipsy at a village, where the lord is the sole proprietor of the rural community’s one and only windmill, who wouldn’t allow the people to own one themselves.

The gipsy makes efforts to raise awareness among the people, which eventually leads to an uprising against the lord and his men.

The windmill stone starts to spin by the people and at the end of the day destroys the lord’s white house. Religious sings and symbols are replete throughout the movie.

Stay with ifilm in the upcoming parts of the article series in which you’ll read more about the highest-grossing flicks produced after the Islamic revolution in Iran.

MF/MG