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Rationalizing the Irrational: Reza Attaran’s Popularity, Stardom, and the Recent Cycle of Iranian Absurd Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Babak Tabarraee
Babak Tabarraee*
Affiliation:
University of Texas, AustinUniversity of British Columbia (Vancouver), University of Art (Tehran)
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Abstract

Reza Attaran is one of the most successful stars of the Iranian popular cinema. This article explores the social circumstances, performative components, and political consequences of Attaran’s popularity and stardom, and the evolution of comedy and satire in the Iranian media after the 1979 Revolution. Analyzing the contextual elements and media texts over the last twenty-five years, the article argues that Attaran actively reflects a complex interaction between the social, political, and artistic demands of each period, best represented through his contribution to the television sketch comedies in the 1990s, and the lowbrow comedies and highbrow absurd films in the 2010s. The trajectory of Attaran’s stardom demonstrates the mechanism by which he serves the maintenance of the status quo.

Keywords

Attaranpopularitystardommediacomedyabsurd
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , July 2018 , pp. 613 - 632
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2018

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Dr. Blake Atwood for his constructive comments on the earlier versions of this article and also the anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions.

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