By Joanne Hilty Rappahannock News Writer Working with old

By Joanne Hilty

Rappahannock News Writer

Working with old equipment, the wrong kind of film and censorship, Iran’s cinema is a world unto itself, the most creative expression of the country’s imagination, so much so that it has earned a reputation as one of the most vibrant and prolific cinemas in the world.

As filmmakers scoop up more and more prizes at international festiI vals, filmmaking has become one of the most popular professions for young people in Iran. They are buying cameras, writing scripts and com! peting for both the few places at film i schools and the privilege of working on the sets of famous directors.

For many Americans, the Iranian cinema is the most direct glimpse I into this complicated culture. More than any other medium, film has helped to break down the dominant Western images of Iran as a country of dour, repressed women swathed in black and bearded young men charging “Death to America!”-as a nation powerless to challenge a ruling class of men in turbans and cloaks.

The popularity of Iranian films is evident in the number recently shown in New York -"The Circle," “The Day I Became a Woman" and “Iran Through the Eyes of Children."

According to Hamid Naficy, associate professor of film and media at Rice University and author of several books on Iranian film and television, “These films are very important in terms of countering the image of Iranians as intolerant and fanatical and of capturing universal themes-that it is human to love your children, that people in Iran face some of the same problems that other people face.”

The Iranian cinema has come a long way from the revolution 22 years ago. Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the, revolution, railed against the cinema, putting it in the same category as theater, dancing and sexually integrated swimming.

In 1982, Iran formally banned films that were judged to encourage wickedness, corruption and prostitution. A majbr change came when Mohammad Khatami was elected