Under the Skin of Society: Rakhshan Banietemad’s Social History of Post-revolutionary Iran

Let me begin with an ending: Rakhshan Banietemad’s film Zir-e Pust-e Shahr (Under the Skin of the City; Figure 2.1), which was released in 2001 to wide acclaim from audiences and critics, ends with a resistance speech act by Tooba (Golab Adineh), the blue-collar worker from south Tehran who had already appeared in Banietemad’s film Bānu-ye Ordibehesht (The May Lady, 1998) and would appear again in Ghesseh-hā (Tales, 2014). Tooba’s final statement is set against the backdrop of the parliamentary elections in the year 2000, three years after the presidential vote that saw the unexpected victory of Mohammad Khatami and