In this essay the films made by Masoud Kimiai are analyzed as a reflection of the conditions of the society. The point in the essay at hand is finding narrative elements in those films of Kimiai which encompass the most conspicuous and tangible matters of the society when the films were made. Artists utilize different ways to express facts about their societies; some delimit their view horizon to the internal matters of their society while some others view society as a general entity. The latter includes the contemporary social framework and its reflection is seeable in the works of art of this group. Masoud Kimiai belongs to the second group and has a holistic eye to the socials matters.
As why Kimiai and his works have been chosen in this regard it is noteworthy to say that so far many pros and cons have studied his works and – apart from their criticism or approval – they unanimously confirm that his delving and witty look has been able to portray those parts of the society which many other directors have failed in their attempts to display.
The movies of Kimiai – either the pre- or the post-revolution eras – is still forcefully imbued with a social autopsy via characters and protagonists whom he loves deeply and to whom gives outstanding roles in all his films. He tries to be a social theoretician in his films. He tries to be the narrator of his era's matters.
The theoretical view of this essay is the theory of reflection which views art as the mirror of society and analyzes the compatibility of the media messages (movies, television …) with social facts. On aggregate it can be asserted that many theoreticians have accepted the existence of a reflective relation between the cinema and the society, although each of them uses a different method to explicate and explain this relation and its degree. This essay however, with reliance and reference to Goldman's view, analyzes the way social matters are reflected in Kimiaei's films.
The evolutionary structuralism of Goldman aims to find mental structures of a social group or stratum in a way that this structure is illuminated in a work of art. Goldman believes that literary and artistic creations are ways of expressing an ideology and each ideology is a social and not individual phenomenon. He views a relation between literary and artistic creations and the current ideology of any given era.
The recognition approach of the essay at hand is quality analysis based on which five movies by Kimiai are analyzed as epitomes of five different eras in Iran's contemporary history. We have chosen the film Gheisar (1969) as the representative of the era of waking, Stone Journey (1977) as the representative of the era of revolution, Snake Fang (1989) as the representative of the era of war Sultan (1996) as the representative of the era of reconstruction and Objection (1999) as the representative of the era or Reform.
The study of five films by Kimiai showed that they are proper means to recognize the most significant matters of their contemporary society. The main core of these films is the main obsession of the time when they were made and portrays the society in this framework. In these films it is as if someone is looking at the society from the outside views its most important matters. The depth of Kimiaei's knowledge of society is best seen in the film Stone Journey in which he foresees the looming image of a revolution based on people's protests one year before it actually took place.He is sensitive toward the ongoing society matters and his works are mirrors reflecting his surroundings.