Thinking on Death in Iranian Cinema: A Film-as-Philosophy Approach (Case Studies: Travellers, Pari, Taste of Cherry, The Last Step, and Fish & Cat)

Mohammadi, Mohammad Hossein; Bolkhari Ghehi, Hassan

doi:10.22059/jfadram.2026.414284.616235

Thinking on Death in Iranian Cinema: A Film-as-Philosophy Approach (Case Studies: Travellers, Pari, Taste of Cherry, The Last Step, and Fish & Cat)

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Mohammad Hossein Mohammadi ¹

Hassan Bolkhari Ghehi ²

¹ Department of Art Advanced Studies, Faculty of Visual Arts, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

² Department of Advanced Art Studies, Faculty of Visual Arts, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/jfadram.2026.414284.616235

Abstract

This article examines death-thinking in Iranian cinema from the perspective of the film-as-philosophy. It argues that films do not merely represent death at the level of theme, but constitute a mode of cinematic reflection on death. Employing a descriptive-analytical method, the study first reviews the theoretical literature on the relationship between film, philosophy, and death-thinking. It then draws on approaches in the philosophy of film to formulate the possibilities of cinematic philosophizing at two interrelated levels: the intra-filmic and the extra-filmic. At the intra-filmic level, narrative and formal elements enable films to pose questions about death, construct arguments, and offer responses. At the extra-filmic level, intertextuality and paradoxes provide the conditions for expanding the field of the film’s thought. Aesthetic perception is also examined in relation to the possibility of films engaging in philosophical activity.This framework is applied to selected examples from Iranian cinema, including Travellers, Pari, Taste of Cherry, The Last Step, and Fish & Cat. The analyses show that these works do not treat death merely as a theme; rather, they organize it as a problem and, through formal, narrative, aesthetic, and intertextual elements, generate the possibility of a distinct mode of cinematic death-thinking.

Keywords

Film

Philosophy

Death

Film-as-Philosophy

Cinema

Iranian Cinema

Subjects