CINEMA AS A TOOL OF INFLUENCE IN THE PORTFOLIO OF IRAN'S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
CINEMA AS A TOOL OF INFLUENCE IN THE PORTFOLIO OF IRAN'S PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Summary/Abstract: The present article sets as a vector of analysis the emergence of Iranian cinema as a tool of influence in the portfolio of Iran's public diplomacy. Given the speed of propagating symmetrical and asymmetric tensions in the current global security architecture, Iran has made it clear that the use of new cultural, religious and linguistic tools that go beyond traditional diplomacy will help brush up its own reputation. Building its research hypothesis on the question: "Does the Iranian cinematographic art represent an opportunity to shape the minds and hearts of the Western public and to promote a different image of the Iranian people in the world?", the article aims to demonstrate that Iran is in the process of country rebranding, giving public diplomacy an innovative direction, translated by the open and decentralized participation of citizens on the political stage, through the multidimensionality of civil society approaches, and even through the blurring of the role of political entities on the traditional way of thinking about diplomacy. Thus Oscar or other international awards winning directors, actors and films have become facilitators of propagating the Iranian culture and identity throughout the world, while the interaction between aesthetics and the social and political issues of Iran's third millennium creates the space for a debate about the new wave of Farsi films that gives birth to a new narrative of Iranian cultural diplomacy.

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