Research Questions: How does Abbas Kiarostami uses cinematography, sound, and mise-en-scene to illustrate two different types of inforation networks in Where is the Friend's House and The Wind Will Carry Us, and what does that imply on Iran's shifting democratic possibilities? ## Introduction ### The Two films Present the films plot summary Iranian New Wave ### Different types of information network: lattice vs mesh #### Lattice A **lattice network** is a system where information and power flow along fixed, hierarchical paths. Each person or node has a specific role and limited authority. - **Hierarchical** - **Linear communication** - **Each node is a gatekeeper** - **Failure at a key point breaks the flow** #### Mesh *Concept of redundancy & resilience* *A mesh is a web-like network where **information flows in many directions**. Everyone is both a receiver and a transmitter. There’s no central hub, a*nd that’s what makes it powerful.” - **Decentralized** - **Resilient** - **Collaborative** While we often think of societies as being run from the top — by leaders, rules, or systems — many communities thrive through _meshes_: decentralized webs of communication and trust. In a mesh, people don’t wait to be told. They listen, share, adapt. ### Historical Background & Democracy in Iran 1979 Islamic Revolution -- overthrew the Shah’s regime and installed a theocratic government, which centralized control over media, education, and public expression. Cultural production was tightly policed, and many filmmakers either fled or were silenced. Late 1980s -- The Iranian New Wave, which had roots before the revolution, found a renewed voice. Directors like Kiarostami navigated censorship by embedding subtle, metaphorical critiques within rural settings and simple narratives. The state’s control resembled a lattice: top-down, centralized, brittle. But Iranian society, especially in its villages and informal networks, retained mesh-like qualities—resilient, distributed, and sustained by interpersonal trust. ## Where is the Friend's House -- a brittle, atomised lattice | Film Technique | Scene | Network Characterstic | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Repetitive static long take of the Zig-Zag uphill path | Every time Ahmad runs between Koker and Poshteh, the camera returns to this same vantage point. | repetition = a visual representation of a network that is both physically and informationally exhausting to navigate, always forcing him through the same frustrating loops with no shortcuts. | | | Ahmad vanishes behind ridges before re-appearing. | Each bend functions like a firewall / deadend; a series of disconnected nodes; information can only hop one doorway at a time | | Repetition of the three journeys | same path, slightly darker each time | fallen into a loop -- lack of alternative routes; redundancy is zero; Like re-sending a packet several times into a unknown journey, hoping it will arrive out of luck | | Framing through doorways & windows (important motifs) | each adult is boxed by a doorframe or window aperture<br>e.g. When Ahmad tries to speak to the carpenter, he is a small figure framed by the large workshop door. | Each doorway is a barrier. Architecture literalises “human gatekeepers”: knowledge sits behind thresholds that must be negotiated one at a time. | | | The film begins with a prolonged shot of the classroom door and its faulty knob, foreshadowing the theme. Throughout his journey, doors are repeatedly shut in Ahmad's face, both literally and figuratively. | Doors = the most potent symbol of the atomized lattice; physical manifestations of hoarded information. | | Boring long Takes of Real-Time Travel (refusing to use editing to compress time) | Ahmad's multiple journeys across the hill are shown in their entirety, making the audience feel the duration and effort of his quest. | Arduous physical travel reflects inefficiency of information entwork; every dead-end has a significant time penalty | | Child-height POV & low lens angle | In conversations with adults like his mother or the elderly men, the camera looks up, making them appear imposing and their authority absolute. | the asymmetrical power of knowledge hoarded by elders; the hierarchical nature of the network -- Information flows downward from adults, who often resufe to listen or offer help | | Minimalistic diegetic sound design | entirely diegetic soundscape made up of natural sounds, unhelpful dialogue, and silence | Stark soundscape mirrors the barrenness of the information network, which offers no comfort or assistance; Sound does not travel; every answer dies out of earshot, mimicking signal loss in a fragile lattice. | | Muted earth palette with little internal contrast | Dusty ochres blend walls, paths, clothes into sameness | no clear connection / distinction / edge between nodes -- all together, hard to even locate each household | | interior vs exterior lighting contrast | Each time Ahmad steps into a doorway, exposure plunges. | knowledge lies in the dark interior and must be coaxed out | ## The Wind Will Carry Us: a resilient, self-healing mesh | Film Technique | Scene | Network Characterstic | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Off-screen sound & characters | Many key characters are only ever heard and never seen, their presence constructed entirely through sound (the well-digger, the dying woman) | the village network is not limited to the visible. Information—gossip, wisdom, news—is ambient and pervasive, creating a resilient "mesh" that exists in shared auditory space, not just physical encounters. Information flows even when the “node” is physically hidden, proving redundancy. | | Layered and Multi-Planar Soundscape | The soundtrack is dense, often featuring multiple sources of sound at once—a conversation in the foreground, children playing in the mid-ground, and animal calls in the background. | This auditory depth creates the sense of a dense, self-healing mesh. Information is not a single thread but a rich tapestry of interwoven sounds. The network doesn't stop if one conversation ends; it is constantly active on multiple layers, ensuring redundancy. | | | Sound Design Contrast of Technology vs. Nature -- The desperate, failing beeps of the phone are juxtaposed with the ever-present wind, birdsong, and distant village life. | The modern information network (the phone) is weak and fails constantly, while the organic, local network (the ambient sounds of life) is robust and persistent, highlighting the irrelevance of Behzad's technology to the local exchange. | | Souondbridges | Milkwoman’s singing continues as we cut from street to hillside. | Information literally “carries” across space, suggesting continuous lateral flow; Sound acts as “wireless” overlay, knitting nodes together beyo | | Repetion & Symbolism of the cemetery hill | Every time the cell rings, Behzad needs to climb up the hill, *just like Amhad climbing up the zig-zag path multiple times* | fragile, centralised techology access -- contrasts with decentralized, robust human mesh; the "single point of failure" vs redundancy | | Slow tilt-pans that pick up new characters mid-motion | | The frame re-routes attention from one “node” to the next without cutting -- Mimics packet routing in a resilient mesh – hand-offs are smooth, lossless. | | Low-key, almost chiaroscuro lighting in the cave-like cow-milking scene | Behzad's conversation with the young milkmaid, Zeynab, happens in a dark, subterranean cellar where he can barely see her. | Deep connections between nodes that are not visible. A deeper level of trust in mere voice. the village network operates on deeper, more intimate levels that are not immediately visible to an outsider, reinforcing the idea of a complex, self-healing mesh that is felt rather than seen. | | Warm, bright Morandi color scheme, natural lighting | Unlike *Friend’s Home*, interiors are semi-open courtyards flooded with lights. | color harmony, transparency | | symbolic recurring motifs -- The Rolling Apple/Bone | Behzad kicks an apple, which then rolls down a complex, spiraling path into a stream where children collect it. Later, he throws a human bone he colelcts back to the stream | Information flows naturally and finds its way, passed along effortlessly from one point to another. It demonstrates a network that is resilient and self-healing, where things (news, objects, life) are carried along by the natural, communal flow. | ## Link to democracy & historical background two films serve as metaphors for contrasting visions of civic life under differing network structures. ### Where is the Friend’s House - a hierarchical system in which each person is locked into their role - moral action is a solitary burden - no redundancy or mutual aid a society where hierarchical rigidity suppresses collective agency—where civic action is fragile and easily thwarted ### The Wind Will Carry Us - knowledge and responsibility are shared laterally - technology plays no role latent democratic possibility — not dependent on formal institutions but grounded in informal, distributed trust. Democracy is not a system imposed from above but a pattern of lived relationships from below. ### Parallels in history - 1978-79: Cassette-tapes of Ayatollah Khomeini’s speeches were duplicated and passed form hand to hand, bypassing the Shah’s media monopoly - late 1990s -- 2000s: As President Khatami pushed for reforms, a wave of bloggers and student groups emerged to express political and cultural criticism; Persian-language blogs (“weblogestan”) became a vibrant underground press. - 2009: Green Movement -- Protesters used SMS, Twitter, Tor, VPNs, Bluetooth file sharing, and rooftop chants (“Allahu Akbar” at night) to coordinate and express dissent. ## Conclusion By juxtaposing a fragile lattice and a resilient mesh, Kiarostami visualises how the architecture of information flow seeds or stifles democratic life. Extension: reflect on today’s algorithm / platfrom bottlenecks: are we moving back toward the fragility in Friend's House? ## (Potential) Sources Manuel Castells -- The Rise of the Network Society (1996) James C. Scott -- Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (1998) Albert-László Barabási – Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else (2002) admin (2020) ‘BEYOND THE ZIGZAG PATH. Where is the Friend’s Home?’, 16 November. Available at: [https://iranologia.es/en/2020/11/16/beyond-the-zigzag-path-where-is-the-friends-home/](https://iranologia.es/en/2020/11/16/beyond-the-zigzag-path-where-is-the-friends-home/) (Accessed: 16 March 2025). Anderson, J.W. (2017) ‘Culture, Lifestyle and the Information Revolution in the Middle East and Muslim World’, _Journal of Cyberspace Policy ُStudies_, 1(1). Available at: [https://doi.org/10.22059/jcpolicy.2017.59871](https://doi.org/10.22059/jcpolicy.2017.59871). Brayton, T. 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