Social Problems of Iran

Discursive Representation of the Addict Subject in Post-Islamic Revolution Cinema

Authors

Mahdi Soltani-gordfaramarzi 1
Homayoun moradkhani 2
Ali asghar Smaelzadeh 3

1 Faculty Member at Academic Centre for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Alborz branch, Karaj, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.

3 Faculty Member at Academic Centre for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Karaj, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.61186/jspi.15.4.2
Abstract
The discursive representation of the issue of addiction and addicted subjects in Iranian cinema and their relationship with the social relations of their time has undergone major changes in the decades after the Islamic Revolution. Using Foucault's discourse analysis method, this article investigates how the subject of addiction and drug addicts is represented and its changes in the movies of the post-revolutionary years. In line with this goal, five prominent films (Tighe and Abrisham, Bad and Shaghaieq, Boutique, Cantauri, Abed and Yak Roz), each of which represented a period of historical-political changes of the last four decades in the representation of addiction and the subject arising from it, to the purposeful sampling method has been chosen for discourse analysis. The findings showed that in the early years of the revolution, the representation of addiction in movies was mainly done in the form of a political-revolutionary agenda and with the support of governmental institutions to manage and reduce addiction. But in the following decades, these representations got out of official control and led to the proliferation of discourses that sometimes contradicted the original goals. In general, although Iranian cinema has tried to provide a new understanding of the issue of addiction and the subject of the addict in line with the evolution of power and its related discourse actions in each period; At the same time, he has also sought to rethink the problem of addiction through his representations and establish a new way of thinking about the aforementioned theme thanks to the image. These representations have had a significant impact on social perception, cultural policies, and public perception of drug addicts. This article emphasizes the importance of historical analysis of Cinematic discourses to better understand the relationship of addiction with power relations, culture, and politics.

Keywords

Iranian Cinema
Addict subject
Discourse analysis
Discourse representation
Cultural policy
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  • Receive Date 08 June 2026
  • Publish Date 08 June 2026