Islamic Studies Commons^™

Not Yearning To Be Saved: Arranged (2007) And The Politics Of Liberal Savior Narratives, Shaheer Afaqi

Journal of Religion & Film

In recent decades, Western film and television platforms have devoted growing attention to portrayals of Orthodox Jewish and Muslim communities. However, a significant subset of these productions is marked by an important limitation: the trend of savior narratives. Such narratives are based on the notion that Orthodox Jewish women and observant Muslim women are often yearning to escape their customs and communities. These narratives are a product of the liberal assumption that individual autonomy is central to human flourishing. However, this article argues that Arranged (2007) prepares audiences to question this assumption and thereby revisit savior narratives. Analyzing the film …

Contemplative Absence: Sacred Experience In Abbas Kiarostami’S The Wind Will Carry Us And The Aesthetics Of Slow Cinema, Hessam Abedini

Journal of Religion & Film

This article examines how Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) creates sacred experience through systematic absence within contemporary slow cinema aesthetics. While previous scholarship has focused on religious content in spiritual cinema, this analysis demonstrates how formal techniques—particularly strategic concealment and extended duration—generate contemplative states without explicit religious references. Drawing on Paul Schrader’s transcendental style theory and recent slow cinema scholarship, the article traces how Kiarostami adapts Persian poetic traditions, particularly concepts of pardeh (veiling) and the interplay between bāṭin (hidden) and ẓāhir (manifest), to create meaning through what remains unseen. The dying woman who never appears, the …

Filming Modernity And Islam In Colonial Egypt, Eid Mohamed

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Heba Arafa Abdelfattah, Filming Modernity and Islam in Colonial Egypt (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023).

Transmodern Cinema And Decolonial Film Theory: A Study Of Youssef Chahine’S Al Maṣīr, Joshua Polanski

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Robert K. Beshara, Transmodern Cinema and Decolonial Film Theory: A Study of Youssef Chahine’s Al Maṣīr (Bloomsbury, 2024).

Iranian Culture In Bahram Beyzaie’S Cinema And Theatre: Paradigms Of Being And Belonging (1959-79), Hessam Abedini

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Saeed Talajooy, Iranian Culture in Bahram Beyzaie’s Cinema and Theatre: Paradigms of Being and Belonging (1959-79) (London: I.B. Tauris, 2023)

Mapping Muslimness In Hindi Cinema, Syed Haider

Journal of Religion & Film

This essay reviews two books: Nadira Khatun, Postcolonial Bollywood and Muslim Identity: Production, Representation, and Reception (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024), and Mohammed Asim Siddiqui, Muslim Identity in Hindi Cinema (New York: Routledge, 2025).

Lived Islam In Films: Faith-Based Resilient Responses Of Syrian Refugees, Jumana S. Al-Ahmad

Journal of Religion & Film

This article provides educators in fields such as Middle Eastern studies, refugee studies, cultural and Islamic studies with a framework from documentaries to challenge stereotypes about Muslim refugees and migrants. Using the framework of lived Islam, the article explores how Syrian Muslim migrants, as seen in documentaries, draw on their faith to build resilience that enables them to continue striving for better lives. Resilience is defined as the ability to overcome challenges and catastrophes, envision solutions, and lead a purposeful life. This article conceptualizes resilience not only as a personal trait but also as a collective tool for survival and …

Coexistence, My Ass!, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Coexistence, My Ass! (2025), directed by Amber Fares.

Brides, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Brides (2024), directed by Nadia Fall.

Layla, Christopher R. Deacy

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Layla (2024), directed by Amrou Al-Kadhi.

In The Land Of Brothers, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of In the Land of Brothers (2024), directed by Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi.

Muslim Heroes On Screen, Ahmad Nuril Huda

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Daniel O'Brien, Muslim Heroes on Screen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).

From Patriarchal Stereotypes To Matriarchal Pleasures Of Hybridity: Representation Of A Muslim Family In Berlin, Rahime Özgün Kehya Dr

Journal of Religion & Film

Sinan Çetin’s blockbuster Berlin in Berlin (1993) is a Turkish-German co-production. In contrast to certain representational tendencies with German orientalism or Turkish occidentalism, it deconstructs the intersectional structures of migration, religion, and gender. The portrayal of religion in films about Turkish-German labour migration is a kind of cultural narcissism often projected into national cinema by denigrating the faith of the other and glorifying one’s own religion. However, perspectives at such intersections are critical and require sensitivity in filmmaking, as films can create prejudice or help build peaceful relationships around these sensitive issues. The paper employs discourse analysis in linking Derrida’s …

To Live And Die And Live, Christopher R. Deacy

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of To Live and Die and Live (2023), directed by Qasim Basir.

Animalia, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Animalia (2023), directed by Sofia Alaoui.

The Riz Test: Teaching Against Islamophobia Through Film, Candace Mixon

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper offers a concrete tool for teaching against Islamophobia using a film assignment and “the Riz Test.” In four parts, it briefly reviews terminology and literature connected to Islamophobia and Muslimophobia, histories of looking and the power of visual culture, pedagogy and critical viewing habits, the Riz Test, and examples of student engagement and course learning goals met through this assignment. Then, readers can use the concrete tool in their courses and practice critical viewing habits.

This paper was part of a panel on “Teaching Asian Religions Through Film” presented at the Association for Asian Studies conference in Honolulu, …

New Approaches To Islam In Film, Sophia Rose Arjana

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Kristian Petersen, ed., New Approaches to Islam in Film (New York: Routledge, 2021).

Jihad Rehab, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Jihad Rehab (2021), directed by Meg Smaker.

Midwives, Sheila J. Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Midwives (2022), directed by Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing.

Child Of Empire, Sheila J. Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the VR short film, Child of Empire (2022), created by Project Dastaan, which includes the artists Sparsh Ahuja, Erfan Saadati, Stephen Stephenson, and Omi Zola Gupta.

Arab Americans In Film: From Hollywood And Egyptian Stereotypes To Self-Representation, Danielle Haque

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Waleed Mahdi, Arab Americans in Film: From Hollywood and Egyptian Stereotypes to Self-Representation (Syracuse University Press, 2020).

The Return: Life After Isis, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Return: Life After ISIS (2021), directed by Alba Sotorra Clua.

Temporary Marriage In Iran: Gender And Body Politics In Modern Iranian Film And Literature, Alicia Izharuddin

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Claudia Yaghoobi, Temporary Marriage in Iran: Gender and Body Politics in Modern Iranian Film and Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).

Heroes, Villains And The Muslim Exception: Muslim And Arab Men In Australian Crime Drama, Sana Patel

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Mehal Krayem, Heroes, Villains and the Muslim Exception: Muslim and Arab Men in Australian Crime Drama.

Queer Muslim Diasporas In Contemporary Literature And Film, Hina Muneeruddin

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Alberto Fernández Carbajal's Queer Muslim Diasporas in Contemporary Literature and Film.

Gender And Patriarchy In The Films Of Muslim Nations: A Filmographic Study Of 21st Century Features From Eight Countries, Candace Mixon

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Patricia R. Owen, Gender and Patriarchy in the Films of Muslim Nations: A Filmographic Study of 21st Century Features from Eight Countries.

No Riddle But Time: Historical Consciousness In Two Islamicate Films, David Sander

Journal of Religion & Film

This article explores ways in which film expresses “internal history” in the context of Muslim cultures. As such, it enquires how film can work as both Islamic art and historical contemplation. The films discussed here, Nacer Khemir’s Wanderers in the Desert and Muhammad Rasoulof’s Iron Island, inhabit and explore the borderline between imagination and reality. The films in question offer an imaginal interspace between “modern” and “traditional” worlds. As such they open up critical perspectives on the meaning of history. What follows is a discussion of how each film offers a window onto differing perceptions of time, and what …

The Gaze And A Sufi Ethics Of Vision In Majidi’S The Willow Tree: Form, Meaning, And The Real, Cyrus A. Zargar

Journal of Religion & Film

In his 2005 film The Willow Tree (Bīd-i Majnūn), Majid Majidi offers a complex moral commentary on the faculty of sight. To do so, the filmmaker draws from Sufi theories of gazing, in which desire must be for ultimate meaning (maʿnā), as conveyed through the vehicle of perceivable form (ṣūra), a distinction with both metaphysical and ethical implications. Majidi presents sight, when devoid of contemplation, as a sort of voyeurism, especially in contrast to the privacy and immediacy of speech and especially within the context of the modern city. Moreover, his use of a …

The Muslim World In Post-9/11 American Cinema: A Critical Study, 2001-2011, Ali A. Olomi

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Kerem Bayraktaroglu's The Muslim World In Post-9/11 American Cinema: A Critical Study, 2001-2011 (North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2018).

Saudi Runaway, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Saudi Runaway (2020) directed by Susanne Regina Meures.