A Semiotic Analysis of Modernization and Identity Conflict in the Iranian New Wave Cinema: A Case Study of Mr. Haloo (i.e. Aqayeh Haloo) and The Suitor (i.e. Khastegar) Based on Julia Kristeva’s Theory
Subject Areas : • بکارگیری نظریهها و روشهای جدید
Asie Mohajeri
1
*
,
Abdul Rafi Rahimi
2
,
Mohsen Bahramnejad
3
,
Bagherali Adelfar
4
,
Seyedmohsen Alavipour
5
1 - Ph.D. student in History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
2 - Associate Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
3 - Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
4 - Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
5 - Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.
Keywords: semiotic order, symbolic order, Julia Kristeva, Iranian New Wave cinema, modernization, identity conflict.,
Abstract :
A Semiotic Analysis of Modernization and Identity Conflict in the Iranian New Wave Cinema:
A Case Study of Mr. Haloo (i.e. Aqayeh Haloo)
and The Suitor (i.e. Khastegar)
Based on Julia Kristeva’s Theory
Asiyeh Mohajeri*
Abdolrafi Rahimi**
Mohsen Bahramnejhad***
Bagherali Adelfar****
Seyyed Mohsen Alavipour*****
This study, assuming the representation of the conflict between tradition and modernity in Iranian New Wave cinema, examines the behavior and disorientation of the tradition-oriented subject in confronting accelerated modernization and state cultural policies. The aim of the research is to represent the identity crisis of the tradition-oriented subject in response to these processes. The central question is how the interaction between the semiotic and symbolic orders in the films Mr. Haloo and The Suitor reflects the identity crisis of tradition-oriented subjects. This study, relying on Julia Kristeva’s theory of language and meaning, is qualitative and based on a semiotic analysis of selected sequences. The findings indicate that disruptions in the coordination between the semiotic and symbolic orders lead to identity fragmentation and psychological disarray in the subject. The study emphasizes the importance of a dialectical analysis of the semiotic and symbolic realms and its role in reinterpreting meanings within cultural and social layers.
Keywords: semiotic order, symbolic order, Julia Kristeva, Iranian New Wave cinema, modernization, identity conflict.
Introduction and Statement of the Problem
In the 1960s and 1970s, Iranian cinema transformed from an imported, limited, and largely entertaining medium into a problem-oriented and thoughtful form capable of revealing hidden layers of collective life and narrating and critiquing the cultural and political conditions of society. During this period, with transformations in social structures, urban growth, the expansion of the middle class, mass rural-to-urban migration, and a deepening gap between traditional and modern lifestyles, the cinematic representation of Iran moved away from simple, hero-centered, and repetitive narratives toward depicting identity crises, value conflicts, and generational tensions. This shift was not merely a change in audience taste but indicated a broader shift in collective consciousness and a sense of crisis in response to modernization imposed from above and accelerated upon society.
Within this context, the Iranian New Wave, as a modernist and critical movement, distanced itself from the dominant logic of Film Farsi—characterized by melodrama, superficial hero-making, and fixed narrative formulas—and, relying on realist storytelling and multilayered character development, established a new cinematic language. In this language, the tension between deep-rooted tradition and rapid modernization, the rupture between village and city, and the conflict between individual desires and dominant social structures were central. The Iranian subject was depicted not as a stereotypical type but as a disoriented, fragmented individual caught between conflicting orders, seeking their place in a transforming world. From the perspective of political theory, this cinematic movement can be understood beyond merely aesthetic transformation; the New Wave, as a culturally based visual expression, becomes a socio-political text in which meaning and power are negotiated. While reflecting the official discourse of the Pahlavi era, this cinema critiques state cultural policies, the imposed definition of national identity, and the idealized image of the “modern Iranian,” questioning the limits and contradictions of this project. Through these representations, mechanisms of domination, forms of symbolic resistance, methods of marginalization, and the legitimacy crisis of the existing order in the years leading up to the revolution are revealed indirectly and symbolically.
This study, assuming the representation of the conflict between tradition and modernity in Iranian New Wave cinema, examines the behavior, speech, and disorientation of the tradition-oriented subject in confronting accelerated modernization and state cultural policies. The central question is: How does the interaction between the semiotic and symbolic orders in the films Mr. Haloo (Dariush Mehrjui, 1970) and The Suitor (Ali Hatami, 1971) reflect the identity crisis of tradition-oriented subjects within the context of modern urban transformations? These two films were purposefully selected because both center on a male character rooted in tradition, who, in confronting women embodying signs of modernity and failing to establish romantic relationships or marriage, reaches an impasse. This impasse is not merely the failure of an individual relationship but dramatizes the crisis of a historical subject. The male protagonists in both films represent subjects who cannot find a stable place in either the traditional or modern order: their ties to collapsing past structures are weakening, while full integration into the new order remains impossible, leaving them suspended and alienated. The aim of this research is to investigate the dialectic between these two realms and explain the failure of the modernization identity project through a semiotic analysis of these films—demonstrating how state cultural policies, at the level of collective unconscious and lived experience, produce crises.
Research Method
Key sequences from both films were selected based on criteria such as the presence of traditional symbols, confrontation with modernity, portrayal of gender relations, and explicit or implicit indicators of the subject’s psychological crisis. They were analyzed at three levels: semiotic, symbolic, and dialectical. At the semiotic level, attention was paid to music, rhythm, silence, gazes, and camera movement; at the symbolic level, dialogues, social situations, roles, and narrative structure were examined. At the dialectical level, the interaction, overlap, or rupture between the semiotic and symbolic levels and their impact on the construction of the subject’s identity were analyzed. Data were collected through repeated and participatory observation and coded based on an open categorization of signs in both semiotic and symbolic orders.
Literature Review
Previous research indicates that although Kristevan semiotic approaches have been applied in visual arts and Persian literature, the interaction between the semiotic and symbolic orders in Iranian films has not been studied.
Theoretical Framework
This study is grounded in Julia Kristeva’s theory of language, which views language as a dialectical space between the semiotic and symbolic orders. Inspired by Freudian psychoanalysis and critically reinterpreting Lacan, Kristeva argues that subject formation does not occur at a fixed point but through a fluid process between pre-linguistic, bodily, and affective drives (the semiotic) and the rule-governed structures of language and socio-cultural institutions (the symbolic). The semiotic is associated with the chora: a pre-linguistic, bodily space in which mother-child relations, rhythms, sounds, and unconscious energies operate in emotional and corporeal experience rather than fixed concepts. The symbolic, in contrast, is the realm of grammar, law, institutions, social roles, and paternal order that situates the subject within a network of stabilized meanings and defines identity. Unlike Lacan, who emphasizes the dominance of the symbolic order and the repression of desire, Kristeva stresses the dynamic interaction between these two realms, noting that the semiotic is never entirely suppressed and continually re-emerges in language and culture through ruptures, slips, rhythms, and emotional outbursts. A relative balance between these orders constitutes the “subject-in-process,” a constantly becoming and evolving subject whose identity is never fully fixed. Disruption in this balance—either through excessive repression of the semiotic by the symbolic or the unchecked eruption of the semiotic and collapse of the symbolic—leads to identity fragmentation and psychological disorder.
In Pahlavi-era Iran, the symbolic order is observable in state modernization policies, official development discourse, and pre-defined notions of the modern citizen, while the semiotic manifests in local traditions, customs, emotions, religious embodiment, and gender relations that remain marginal to the official order. Cinema’s dual nature (visual-auditory) makes it an unparalleled arena for exploring this theoretical framework: the symbolic is expressed through narrative, dramatic structure, and dialogue, while the semiotic is conveyed through sound, music, editing rhythm, camera movement, mise-en-scène, and bodily presence, allowing the tension between the semiotic and symbolic to materialize within cinematic language itself.
In Mr. Haloo, Haj Rahim-Ali, representing traditional and moral order, comes from the village to the city and encounters modernizing Tehran, urban advertisements, an emerging middle class, new work relations, and modern women. The irregular rhythms of traditional music at the film’s start evoke an emotional connection to the village and past attachments, which are disrupted by urban sounds, street noise, and modern music, producing an auditory dissonance between past and present. Shaky close-ups of Haj Rahim-Ali’s face, montage sequences highlighting humiliation and failure, and the contrast between his simple, intimate language and the formal, distancing speech of others illustrate the dialectical rupture between the traditional semiotic and the modern symbolic order. Here, the traditional semiotic—present in his body, tone, gaze, and emotions—comes under pressure from the rational, bureaucratic, urban symbolic order and, unable to find a new form of expression, transforms into repression, silent rage, and emotional failure.
In The Suitor, Khavari, a teacher, faces an urban and capricious woman and interacts within the traditional framework of courtship, using formal and polite language. At the semiotic level, his anxious body, repeated expressions, pauses, and nervous laughter reveal inner tension between desire and fear, showing how the semiotic manifests in daily behavior. At the symbolic level, class relations, the girl’s family expectations, and modern standards of spouse selection create a structure in which the traditional subject is subordinate. The courtship scenario reveals the subject’s inability to enter the modern symbolic order while exposing the hidden collapse of traditional structures; he can neither internalize the new rules nor rely on the old logic, leaving him in painful suspension.
Conclusion
The findings confirm that disruption in the semiotic-symbolic dialectic directly leads to the identity fragmentation of the tradition-oriented subject. The traditional symbolic order can no longer cope with the dynamics of modernity, and the modern symbolic order does not fully absorb the subject; in other words, neither provides the conditions for a coherent, low-tension identity. This suspended identity reflects the contradictions of accelerated modernization, which, without genuine interaction between tradition and semiotic innovation, produces unstable identity and paves the way for broader social and political crises in the years leading to the revolution.
Kristeva’s theory thus provides an effective framework for understanding identity crises in Iranian New Wave cinema and Pahlavi cultural policies, demonstrating the importance of considering the interplay between language, body, desire, and power in cinematic analysis. It is recommended that this approach be extended to other New Wave and post-revolutionary films, with a focus on semiotic elements such as music, bodily expression, sound, and the role of women, to reveal deeper layers of meaning-making and identity conflict in contemporary Iranian culture.
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* Corresponding Author: Ph.D. student in History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
as.mohajeri61@gmail.com
0009-0009-4751-4950
** Associate Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
rahimi@hum.ikiu.ac.ir
0000-0002-1645-0300
*** Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
bahramnejad@hum.ikiu.ac.ir
0000-0002-3936-9345
**** Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
b.adelfar@ikiu.ac.ir
0009-0003-3719-4830
***** Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran.
0000-0001-7996-0538
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