Exercises in Upright Posture: The films of Mohammad Rasoulof in the Context of Contemporary Iranian Cinema

By winning the Golden Bear at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival, the Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof reached the peak of his filmmaking career. Looking back at his near-20-year career gives an impression that the director always followed past and present trends in the politically oppositional branch of Iranian cinema, which included a visible resort to the use of allegories. His recent work is marked by a turn towards drama and his stories work best when he emphasizes the characters that are faced with difficult moral choices while under pressure from various forms of authority.