Adaptation in Iranian New Wave Cinema: Social Commentary in Dariush Mehrjui’s The Cow (1969)

Abstract This article examines the degree to which pre-revolutionary Iranian New Wave cinema is influenced by modern Persian fiction. Considering Iranian film adaptations have barely received any scholarly attention, this article focuses on Dariush Mehrjui’s The Cow/Gav (1969), one of the pioneering films of the New Wave, adapted from Gholamhosein Sa’edi’s story collection entitled The Mourners of Bayal/Azadaran-e Bayal (1965). The rise of the New Wave cinema through the pre-revolutionary years before 1979 was interwoven with the engagement of filmmakers like Mehrjui with Persian fiction. While Sa’edi’s stories present criticisms of the socio-political atmosphere of the late 1960s and 1970s, I argue that Mehrjui’s adaptation complicates Sa’edi’s critical perspective to establish an overt social commentary on contemporary Iranian society. This paper will conclude by demonstrating that Mehrjui in The Cow draws on Sa’edi’s work to portray a microcosm of Iranian society and places it in relation to the motifs of overdependence, fear, religion, and waiting, which are interpretable in the social context of the late 1960s and 1970s. This analysis highlights the invisible yet significant role of modern Persian fiction and adaptation strategies in establishing the perspective of The Cow, which left an impression on many New Wave films.