Iranian premodern formations—cultural habits, oral traditions, social conditions, gender inequality, illiteracy, and collective relations—were inimical to pleasurable film viewing and to learning from the movies. A lengthy, confidential report by the U.S. State Department offers the following rare assessment of the primitive film-culture and spectatorial formation in Iran in 1949:
Foreign films are shown in the cities where electric current is available. All films are censored by the police in the Central Office in Tehran. Although the majority of foreign films shown are American, the most popular films are, of course, those in Persian. Attendance at the movies, even in Tehran, has not become the habit for which cinema managers hoped. This is partly because the public cannot afford the expense, partly because the theaters are unattractive. The small attendance seems to be due principally to the fact that the Iranians by habit and interest prefer to talk. They are perfectly satisfied to sit with friends in conversation and drink tea. Their main interest is concentrated upon local events and gossip that immediately concern them. Country folk whose work day extends from sunrise to sunset have no spare money for the movies, are accustomed to go to bed early, and have little comprehension of the life or world shown on the screen. The movement in the films is too rapid and much of the material represented is too unfamiliar. One of the most welcome films in Iran was Walt Disney’s cartoon of the mosquito, made as propaganda for malaria control.
From: Social History of Iranian Cinema, Volume 2: The Industrializing Years, 1941-1978 by Hamid Naficy
