Tehran’s genius loci in Film

Films often provide a unique sense of the city, unavailable through other media. The relationship between cinema and the city can be examined in numerous ways. On one hand, film provides an urban archive that maps changes in the urban landscape; and on the other, film does not only capture the atmosphere of a place but it produces the city, both literally and imaginarily through the construction of fantasy urban spaces, ideas and ideals of the city. The city, however, is not only what appears on the screen but it includes also the imaginary city created by cinema which is re-experienced in the private and public spaces of the city. Studying the relationship between cinema and the city as lived social realities is a growing field of study, especially with regards to thematic and formal representations of the city in recent years. Adopting the methodology of studies about the relation between cinema and cities such as New York and Tokyo, this paper will offer a preliminary reading of the relationship between Iranian cinema and the city of Tehran and its urban sphere by a close textual analysis of films such as Ten (2001), Tehran Has No More Pomegranates! (2007), and Taxi Tehran (2015)