- connection with cultural context - clear specifc evience --- - [ ] gather screenshots & clear, specific ==evidence== - [ ] gather & fit in ==citations== - [ ] add more implications / why / link to cultural context (go beyond surface-level analysis) for each small point -- ==expansion== expansion --> evidence --> citation --- ## 1. Introduction The first time I watched the film "Where is the Friend's House" by Abbas Kiarastami (hereafter referred to as FH), I was left perplexted -- I didn't quite grasp the message he was trying to convey, and all I see is this small and dead village and a boy trying to navigate through it to accomplish some insignificant task. Later, interested by the Iranian New Wave, I watched another film by Kiarastami -- "The Wind Will Carry Us" (hereafter referred to as TW). This time, the story also takes place in a village, but the contrast is quite big. The two vilalges are totally different in terms of how "lively" the community is, how people talk to each other, how information is transferred, and how people work together. I was particularly interested by the concept of "information network" that I was also learning about at the same time. The conecpt of information network comes from network theory, and refers to the way a society or community is structured and how information flows within the structure. As a result, I immediately noticed that the two films portray two vastly different pictures of information networks of the two villages. Applying this concept to both films, I decide to dive into these tow films to explore how Abbas Kiarostami uses film techniques to illustrate tow different types of information networks in FH and TW. I will also explore what does that imply on Iran's shifting democratic possibilities, after learning about Iran's history and the cultural context behind the films. ## 2. Cultural Context ### 2.1 The Iranian New Wave Abbas Kiarostami is famously known for his contribution to the film movement The Iranian New Wave, and both films are representative of the spirit of the movement. The Iranina New Wave emerged in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as a response to strict censorship and the need for new forms of cultural expression. Characterized by its poetic realism, minimalism, and allegorical strategies, films in the Iranian New Aim aims to explore deeper questions that are conencted to the very conditions of life in the Iranian society. WarIn Where is the Friend's House, Ahmad’s journey through unresponsive adults and closed doors becomes a metaphor for the struggle of ordinary Iranians to assert moral responsibility in a rigid and hierarchical society. The Wind Will Carry Us, released a decade later during a period of relative political reform and renewed debate about democracy, contains more hope for democracy and reform. Just as the title suggests, the futility of human ambition and authoritarian regimes cannot fight against the forces of time and mortality and endure forever. ### 2.2 Historical Background & Democracy in Iran The two decades following the Iranian Revolution of 1979 were marked by profund social and political upheaval. Having overthrown the Shah's monarcy in the name of freedom and democracy, Iran only ended up falling under the rule of Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Republic, which results in even more censorship and policatal repression. Soon after, the Iran-Irap war (1980-1988) consumed the nation, claiming hundreds of throusands of lives. During this period, the government continued to suppress dissent; yet it was precisely under these constraints that the Iranina New Wave cinma flourished. Through minimalist narratives and allgorical storytelling, directors like Abbas Kiarostami found ways to reflect on issues without being censored. _Where Is the Friend’s House?_ exemplifies the cultural environment of these years, with a reflection on the assertion of personal moral agency in an endemocratic environment. By contrast, _The Wind Will Carry Us_ (1999) reflects a different Iran -- one shaped by postwar reconstruction and the cautious hopes of reform in the late 1990s, with the election of Mohammad Khatami in 1997. In this film, the village is vibrant and filled with communications and public discussions. All villagers help each other and gather together to solve community issues, representing a healthy democratic envrionement. Taken together, the two films chart the transformation of Iranian society across two decades. The films capture and portray two vastly different microcosms of the Iranian soceity -- two with contrasting information networks, with differnet implications for the possibility for democracy. ## 3. Information Networks The organizaiton of a social life is heavily determined by how information is organized and communicated within a society. In some societies, importnat individuals are held as the source of truth, and information is spread hierarchically; In others, information and power is decentralized, and every one actively shares information each other and has a say in community affairs. Two particularly revealing models are the **lattice network** and the **mesh network**, borrowed from xxx's network theory, which tries to describe how "nodes" (people, entities) are connected with each other. A **lattice** is a structured, rigit, and often top-down system where information flows along predefined, inflexible paths. It suggests order, hierarchy, and predictability: each node connects in a fixed, rule-bound manner. A single point of failure will nullify the entire system. For a **mesh**, by contrast, imagine a web where every point can connect to many other points, not just one or two in a fixed line. A mesh emphasizes openness, redundancy, and horizontal ties. There isn't a single boss or a rigid chain of command for information -- allowing resilience even when disruptions occur. | | Latice | Mesh | | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Organization | Rigid, hierarchical, linear | Flexible, decentralized, collaborative | | Robustness | Vulnerable; failure at a key point breaks it all | Resilient; informatino flows freely, responsibility diffused across community | The contrast between lattice and mesh reveals deeper questions about the possibility of democracy in Iran. A lattice society risks silencing individual agency under rigid control. A mesh society, though slower and less predictable, allows for a more participatory and pluralistic form of connection—an image of democracy built not from authority downward, but from relationships outward. As a result, the main body of this essay will analyze how Abbas Kiarostami uses film techniques to illustrate these two different types of information networks in the two films, with implications of Iran's democratic landscape. ## 4. Film Analysis ### 4.1 Structure #### 4.1.1 Isolated Nodes vs Connected Network Another several recuring motifs like the rolling apple and the human bone also points to the structure of the information network. 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. All these phenomenon show that objects and 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. The rich and multi-layer soundscape in the film is quite notable. 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. Lot so soundbridges were used -- Milkwoman’s singing continues as we cut from street to hillside for example. Information literally “carries” across space, suggesting continuous lateral flow; Sound acts as “wireless” overlay, knitting nodes together. #### 4.1.2 Single Linear Path vs Multidirectional Flow Repetitive static long take of the zig-zap path is an excellent annatation -- everytime Ahamd runs between Koker and Poshteh, the camera goes to this position and gives a static shots of Ahmad running up and down. The repetition visually protrays a "network" (the village itself) that is both physically and informationally exhausting to navigate, always forcing him through the same frustrating loops with no shortcuts. The effectively underlines the fact that in a lattice network, there are often only limited ways to go from one point to another, leading to great inefficiency. Ahmad travelling this path multiple times throughout the film also symbolizes that of re-sending a packet several times into an unknown journey, hoping it will arrive out of luck. The oring long Takes of Real-Time Travel also illustrate the fact that a lattice network is brittle and inefficienct. Refusing to use editing to compress time, Kiarastami shows Ahmad's multiple journeys across the hill in their entirety, making the audience feel the duration and effort of his quest. More importantly, the rich off-screen sounds imply that the vilalge network is not limited ot the visible. Information flows even when the “node” is physically hidden -- in fact some important characters in the film never show their face, like the well-digger and the dying woman. In "The Wind Will Carry Us", there is also the symbolism of the cemetery hill that Behzad constaly clims up to in order to pick up the phone call, just like Ahamd's climbing up the zig-zap path. However, here, the cemetry hill contrasts fragile, centralised techology accesswith decentralized, robust human mesh. 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. ### 4.2 Flow of Information #### 4.2.1 Gatekeepers vs Transmitters Deep in the village, Ahmad is frequently being framed through doorways & windows, which serve as important motifs. Every adult Ahmad encouters is boxed by a doorframe or window aperture. Through the physical blockades of doorways and windows, the architecture literalises the concept of "gatekeepers" -- nodes that hoard information. In order to get useful information, one must arduously negotiate with one at a time. #### 4.2.2 Vertical Command vs Horizontal Dialogue As mentioned, the film follow's Ahmad's point-of-view. As Ahamd's repetively tries to communicate with adults, he receive either rejection or irrelevant instructions. One time, Ahmad's is caught up in a conversation with an elderly man, who completely disregards Ahamd's need and instead began his preaching on xxx. This reveals he asymmetrical power of knowledge hoarded by elders and the hierarchical nature of the network -- Information flows downward from adults, who often resufe to listen or offer help. Also similar to the lighting in Where is the Friend's House is the 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. However, while in WITFH the low-key lighting signifies the opacity of information, here the lighting points to 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. Meanwhile, outside most of the time, Unlike *Friend’s Home* filled with closed doors and windows, moust households interiors are semi-open courtyards flooded with lights, symbolizing transparency. #### 4.2.3 Noise vs Signal Another notable use of window is the starting shot of film -- a prolonged shot of the shut classroom door. This act as a foreshaodw: throughout his journey, doors are repeatedly shut in Ahmad's face, both literally and figuratively. The noise behind the classroom door also symbolizes meaningless noise that Ahmad will receive a lot. ### 4.3 Crisis Resolution In where is the friend's house, the entire network is unresponsive and fragile. Once an error such as "birnging back some one else's notebook" accidentally happens, it takes an enourmous amount of energy to fix it, just like Ahamd's journey illustrates. As a result, any accident or event can be resolved quickly and efficiencly. The first example is the old woman's health status. Supposededly just a random boy who acts us a guide for the engineer, the boy became Bezhold's constant source of infor?mation to monitor the old woman's health status. And every time Bezhold asks, the boy is fully informed of exactly what happend, and even who went to the old woman's house last night. Another insident is when the well-digger on the cemetry hill accidently buries himself. Once Bezhold asks for help, all vilagers immediately went to rescue the well-digger, without needing him to explain too much. This forms a stark contrast with Ahamd, who needs to repetively explain his intention to every one on his journey in order to get relevant information and get his job done. ### 4.4 Summary ## 5. Further Implications The two films serve as metaphors for contrasting visions of civic life under differing network structures. Where is the Friend's House paints a soceity a society where hierarchical rigidity suppresses collective agency—where civic action is fragile and easily thwarted, just like under the rule of the Islamic Republic. However, even under such an environment, local effort to rebuild the society still exist, just like in The Wind Will Carry Us. There, the social structure is 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. Even under oppressive regimes, the people will try to break through the lattice-structure and form healthy meshes by breaking censorship and sharing information. For example, 1978-79: Cassette-tapes of Ayatollah Khomeini’s speeches were duplicated and passed form hand to hand, bypassing the Shah’s media monopoly; Dulate 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; In 2009, the Green Movement -- Protesters used SMS, Twitter, Tor, VPNs, Bluetooth file sharing, and rooftop chants (“Allahu Akbar” at night) to coordinate and express dissent. In another sense, the two films themselves are the best illustration of these efforts -- artists trying to use art as a medium to explore social issues and rebuild the society from trauma. ## 6. Conclusion In conclusion, By juxtaposing a fragile lattice and a resilient mesh, Kiarostami visualises how the architecture of information flow seeds or stifles democratic life. However, reflecing on the fact that today’s algorithm and platfrom dictate what we see daily and manipulates our behaviours, the technology that once promised to free humanity by enabling tthe free flow of information seems to be turning us again into atomized lattice strcuture -- where no one is listening to each other and we are all trapped in information bubbles. The vibrant democratic life is again gradually disappreaing and we are living in an era when we don't even know our neighbor, let alone the whole vilalge like in The Wind Will Carrry Us. Is demoracy at risk? What does that imply about our societal structure once again? That will be left for further explorations.