Quarterly Review of Film and Video

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/gqrf20

The Carriage Driver in the Pink Frame of

Neorealism

Musa Khamushi

To cite this article: Musa Khamushi (2021) The Carriage Driver in the Pink
Frame of Neorealism, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 38:6, 581-598, DOI:
10.1080/10509208.2020.1784676

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2020.1784676

Published online: 01 Jul 2020.

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QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM AND VIDEO
2021, VOL. 38, NO. 6, 581–598
https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2020.1784676

The Carriage Driver in the Pink Frame of Neorealism

Musa Khamushi

Introduction
Neorealism was a cinematic movement formed during World War II in Italy.
This realist movement was in fact the product of the suffering of the Italian
people during this devastating war. Leading directors of the movement were
people like Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica and Luchino Visconti. Italian
neorealism reached its peak in 1948 and in continuation it did not just
remain in Italy; this movement exported its characteristics to the cinemas of
different countries like France, Britain, Japan, the United States and Iran.
So far, research has been done on the impact of Italian neorealism on
Iranian cinema, which has been mainly related to the impact of this cine-
matic movement on post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. For example, in the
article titled “Neorealism, Iranian Style,” the author chooses one of the
most prominent neorealist works in Italian cinema, called Ladri di biciclette
(Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica, 1948) and then he compares the movies
Where Is The Friend’s House (Abbas Kiarostami, 1986), The Cyclist
(Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1988) and The Color of Paradise (Majid Majidi,
1998) with it.1 Another researcher named, Leila Bigoli examined the impact
of this cinematic movement on several films in the 1960s in her thesis
called “The Impact of Italian Neorealism on Iranian Cinema in the
1980s.”2 But in this article, the impact of this cinematic movement on one
of the pre-revolutionary films, titled The Carriage Driver directed by
Nosrat Karimi, has been examined. The Carriage Driver is one of the best
examples to show that since the Pahlavi era, there had been some Iranian
directors who made films with well-known patterns in the world.
Nosrat Karimi, who had worked in the field of film in Italy for several
years, directed four feature films after his return to Iran of which
Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver, 1971) embraced characteristics of
Neorealism. Prior to Karimi, some other Iranian directors had produced
some films with neorealist characteristics too; but Karimi’s film was made
as fitly as in the context of neorealism, which some called it the first

Musa Khamushi is an independent researcher in Iran. He was a Hans-Robert Roemer Fellow in the German foun-
dation of Orient Institut Beirut in 2019. His research interests are mainly in the Iranian cinema as well as Italian
cinema, American cinema and the interrelations of the three.
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
ß 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
582 M. KHAMUSHI

neorealist movie in Iranian cinema. However, due to some features of the

film, it cannot be considered as an inspiration from early neorealist works;
rather, the author believes that the film falls into a branch of neorealism
called pink or rosy neorealism. In this article, the author seeks to show that
the movie Doroshkechi was a pink neorealist film in the Iranian cinema;
therefore, at the first step it should be shown that this movie embraces
Italian neorealist criteria and in the second step its being a pink neorealist
film should be discussed.

Director of the Movie Doroshkechi

Nosrat Karimi was born on December 22, 1924, in the Qanatabad neigh-
borhood, Tehran, in a traditional family. He completed his education at
Zand Elementary School, Industrial school, and then at the Acting school.3
Due to his interest in acting and make-up, he worked in various theaters
doing them. After that, he thought of traveling to Europe; then Karimi
went to Italy and met great directors such as Vittorio De Sica.
He then moved to the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic)
and received a bachelor’s degree in film direction and a master’s degree in
puppet movies from the Academy of Arts in Prague during five years. He
then returned to Italy and stayed there for more four years. During this
period he did different cinematic works such as dubbing Iranian films.4 In
Italy, he also had the experience of assisting the great director of this coun-
try, Vittorio De Sica.5 Karimi returned to Iran in 1964 after 11 years of
study, training and engagement in the cinema industries of the former
Czechoslovakia and Italy. In Iran He made ten short puppet and animated
films for The Ministry of Art and Culture, one of which, named “Malek
Jamshid,” won a silver plaque at the International Children’s Film Festival.
He also produced two TV series named “Mr. Plainful,” a puppet show, and
“The Marriage.” He finally directed his first feature film Doroshkechi
(Carriage Driver) in 1971. Except this movie, he produced three other fea-
ture films which were Mohallel (The Interim Husband, 1971), Takhtekhab
se Nafareh (A Three-Person Bed, 1972) and Khaneh Kharab (Ruined-
House, 1975). Nosrat Karimi was a lecturer at the College of Dramatic Arts
for twenty years and in the College of Fine Arts of the Tehran University
for several years in different fields of the performing arts. He wrote some
screenplays such as “Little Fairy,” “White Goat,” “Mobarak,” “Heritage,”
“Naranj and Toranj,” which, of course, he never had the opportunity to
direct (Figure 1).6
Karimi was sentenced to death in the early years of the Iranian
Revolution 1979 due to his artistic activities, but this sentence was later
commuted and he was released from the death penalty. After the Iranian
 QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM AND VIDEO 583

Figure 1. Photograph of Nosrat Karimi at the age of 79 in 2003, winter. Reproduced from
Karimi, Nosrat. The Carriage Driver (Tehran, Iran: Mitra, 2004 [1383 SH]), p. 5.

Revolution, he was never able to get a license to act or direct in a fea-

ture film.7
Something very important and interesting about Karimi is that he went
to Italy at a time when the neorealist movement spent its golden age yet
and there he found the opportunity to work as a film assistant with one of
the best directors of the neorealist movement, that is to say De Sica, for
some time.

Italian Neorealism
Italian neorealism refers to the cinematic movement that took place during
World War II in Italy. The movement sought to portray life and human
beings as they were. This movement constructed its foundations on reality
and was technically simple; the simplicity which arose from the lack of
tools and equipment needed to produce films. Cinecitta was destroyed dur-
ing World War II and some directors like Rossellini went to real places
(locations) to produce films. In this movement, people in the streets and
markets were mostly used instead of professional actors. The lack of tools
584 M. KHAMUSHI

and facilities led to the simplicity and honesty of such films and this
became the main force of neorealism. Neorealism dealt with social history,
for example, women who suffered from the effects of war or the issue of
poverty, which was one of the consequences of miserable war. It should be
noted that before the advent of neorealism, there was no criticism (against
the situation of the country for example) in Italian cinema. One of the out-
standing features of neorealist films was their close connection with docu-
mentary cinema to express reality. That’s why it brought together the best
former documentarians, such as Rossellini, Antonioni, Emmer, Risi and
Zavattini. Neorealism can be defined as a kind of Italian-style realism.8
According to what mentioned before, the important features of neoreal-
ism can be considered as follows: Use of nonprofessional actors,9 dealing
with poverty as one of the consequences of war, dealing with highly tan-
gible issues and use of real locations. Now it remains to be seen to what
extent the movie Doroshkechi has embraced the characteristics
of Neorealism.

The Actors and the Musician of the Movie

In neorealist films, it was preferable to use nonprofessional actors to play
different roles; but in many neorealist films, directors also preferred a com-
bination of professional and nonprofessional actors. In the movie Sciuscia
(Shoeshine, Dir. Vittorio De Sica, 1946), nonprofessional actors dominated
the professional ones and took on the leading roles. Franco Interlenghi and
Rinaldo Smordoni took on the leading roles in this film while it was their
first time to taste acting. In the movie, a famous actor like Emilio Cigoli
was also present by playing a supporting role. After the movie Sciuscia
(Shoeshine, Dir. Vittorio De Sica, 1946), Franco Interlenghi continued act-
ing roles in different films too and very soon he became one of the most
famous figures in the Italian cinema. In another famous neorealist movie
Roma citta aperta (Rome, Open City, Dir. Roberto Rossellini, 1945), we
face a combination of professional and nonprofessional actors too; but
unlike the previous film, the leading roles in this film are mainly played by
well-known actors such as Aldo Fabrizi and Anna Magnani. Marcello
Pagliero gained his first acting experience with this film in the role of
engineer Giorgio Manfredi, who also starred in one of the film’s lead-
ing roles.
In the movie Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver, Dir. Nosrat Karimi, 1971)
we face with a combination of professional and nonprofessional actors too.
In his book, Amini writes about the actors of the film as: “except Shahla,10
other actors were young and inexperienced.”11 It should be noted that even
Nosrat Karimi himself, who was the best actor in the film, experienced his
 QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM AND VIDEO 585

Figure 2. Photograph of Doroshkechi’s poster. Reproduced from “Tonight’s Cinema Program.”

Setareh Cinema (29 April 1971 [9 Ordibehesht 1350 SH]), p. 25.

first acting experience in the Iranian cinema with this movie. Arghavan
experienced her first acting in cinema with the role of Puri (Zinat Sadat’s
daughter) in the film; through which the Iranian cinema recognized her.12
Babak Karimi13 in the role of Zinat Sadat’s son who aged 10 then was nor-
mally also a nonprofessional actor. Masud Asadollahi (in the role of
Morteza) had played just in one feature film before this in 1970 (Figure 2).
Even in the selection of the film’s musician, Karimi chose a young (inex-
perienced) and unknown person for this job. Of course, the choice of expe-
rienced or inexperienced musicians has nothing to do with a film’s being
neorealist or not; however, it should be noted that one of the major chal-
lenges of neorealist films was the budget of these films. Due to the poor
586 M. KHAMUSHI

economic conditions during and after World War II, Italian neorealist
directors mainly considered making their films at the lowest possible cost.
Nosrat Karimi did not financially have a free hand to expend for his
film too. due to an agreement between Karimi and the producer of the
movie Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver), he had to make the film with a
cost not more than 350,000 Tomans.14 The cost of this film in compari-
son to, for example, the movie Baba Shamal (Baba Shamal, Dir. Ali
Hatami, 1971), which cost 1,600,000 Tomans, seems insignificant.15 Of
course the movie Baba Shamal was very expensive; but compared to
other movies, like laj va lajbazi (Obstinacy and Obstinance, Dir. Mehdi
Reisfirooz, 1972) which cost around 600,000 tomans, the film
Doroshkechi was an inexpensive one.16
Although employing a good musician was not compatible with Karimi’s
commitment to the producer (due to the high wages); however, he was
looking for a first-rate musician for his movie. One day, he fortuitously
came across a young musician named Mojtaba Mirzadeh and had a brief
conversation with him. Karimi trusted in the relatively anonymous young
man, who was a student at the College of Fine Arts in the field of
Symphonic Music, to perform the soundtrack.17 In the following years
Mojtaba Mirzadeh became a very prominent musician.

Poverty
Poverty is a common theme in neorealist films. Poverty is an integral part
of the movie Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver), although it is not the main
theme of it. Twenty-five years ago, before Zinat Sadat got married to her
current late husband, Gholamali Khan (the role acted by Nosrat Karimi)
had proposed to her; but he faced a negative response on behalf of Zinat
Sadat’s brother;18 because of his being a carriage driver which socially was
considered a low job with a hand-to-mouth income. Now that 25 years
have passed since then, Gholamali Khan sells his carriages and buys a car.
In this way, he intends to satisfy him to marry Zinat Sadat. Another indica-
tion that shows Gholamali Khan is not yet in an ideal economic situation
is that he has not been able to buy a house after 25 years of his former
marriage. He lives in a house, half of which belonged to his previous late
wife and now belongs to her daughter and the other half belongs to Zinat
Sadat (Figure 3).
The appearance of the carriage driver (Gholamali Khan) also shows his
low economic status. His appearance was deliberately pre-planned by the
film’s director. Before making the film, one day Nosrat Karimi went to the
Gomrok Square19 with the film procurement manager so that they could
find the clothes he wanted for the character of the carriage driver in the
 QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM AND VIDEO 587

Figure 3. Gholamali Khan is talking to Zinat Sadat at her house. Reproduced from Setareh Cinema
(22 April 1971 [2 Ordibehesht 1350 SH]), p. 42.

secondhand clothing stores there. According to Karimi, the secondhand

clothes of the Gomrok Square were “old clothes of the middle and upper
classes of society;” but he needed more worn-out clothes for the character
of Gholamali Khan. After several hours at various clothing stores, the man-
ager objected to Karimi, that what kind of clothes he was searching for.
Simultaneously, Karimi’s gaze fell on a middle-aged man who was walking
toward him, and instantly his clothes caught Karimi’s attention. Karimi
told the manager that he wanted such a garment. The manager immedi-
ately took the middle-aged man to a clothing store and bought him a suit
and hat, which was much better than the man’s previous clothes, and
instead took his suit and hat for the movie Doroshkechi
(Carriage Driver).20
588 M. KHAMUSHI

A Tangible Theme for the Iranians

Nosrat Karimi, who was looking for a suitable subject to make his film,
one day encountered one of his grieving students at the college. In an
intimate conversation between them, the student revealed his problem
that a 50-year-old man was trying to marry his 35-year-old widowed
mother. The student seemed very upset and depressed about this; but
after a short talk, Karimi convinced him that there was nothing wrong
with that, and that he should not feel upset about it, and that her
mother had the right to live and remarry. After this incident, Karimi
writes in his book:
As I searched for my favorite subject, I remembered Federico Fellini, who in an
interview advised the youth fond of cinema not to roam the earth and the sky to
find a suitable subject, because the best subjects lie in their daily lives and their own
personal experiences. Immediately I decided to make the experience of that young
student the central core of the film’s story.21

The subject of the movie Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver) was a com-

pletely tangible and realistic issue for the Iranian society. In the same year
that the film was released, Keyvan Sepehr22 writes about it as follows:
Doroshkechi is a story of familiar and tangible stories. It is an unvarnished life which
is knowingly shown by the storyteller as it was and is, pristine and untamed; and
with admirable delicacy and patience, he lends it piquant embellishments, not out of
pleasure or accident, but with a reasonable intent. It is a story that is near and close
to stories of the lives we have been acquainted with or faced. Its people are people
with the form and figure of the people of this land.23

Real Locations
Neorealist movies have been almost always shot on location; all scenes or
most of them were completely real. In this style of filmmaking, there is
either no stage design at all, or if there is, it is so small or delicate that it
does not take the scene away from what it really is. At the beginning of the
movie Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver), we find ourselves in a cemetery
where some people are gathered around a tomb and are crying (Figure 4).
After that, in different scenes of the film, we encounter the lanes and
bazaars of old Tehran. Before making the film, Nosrat Karimi practiced
carriage driving and acquired the necessary skills. Therefore, he actually
drives the carriage in the film; the carriage in which many excellent scenes
took place. For example, in the scene where Zinat Sadat says that men are
unfaithful, and then she is confronted with the unexpected response of
Gholamali Khan, and a romantic and emotional scene is formed,24 they are
in the carriage which is driven by Karimi himself.
 QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM AND VIDEO 589

Figure 4. Zinat Sadat is mourning her late husband in first sequence of the movie. Reproduced
from Karimi, Nosrat. The Carriage Driver (Tehran, Iran: Mitra, 2004 [1383 SH]), p. 38.

A great part of the film was shot in the house of Zinat Sadat and a little
in the house of her brother Akbar Khan. Both houses were such that the
Iranian viewers (from the middle or lower strata of 1970s), watching the
interior atmosphere of these two houses, thought that they were sitting in
their own houses and considered all things natural and devoid of any dec-
oration. In this film, everything was close to the reality and natural life of
that period. In a completely creative and innovative move, Karimi even
wrote the title sequence of the movie on the body of his carriage horse.
The name of the movie was Carriage Driver and Karimi chose the body of
the horse as the best place to show the title sequence in white color!
(Figure 5).

Opinions Concerning the Film’s Realism

Some people who worked in the field of filmmaking, or who were film crit-
ics or who wrote in magazines, gave their opinions regarding the movie
and its impact from neorealism or its realism. For example, in a weekly
magazine, it was briefly pointed out that the film was realistic.25Another
opinion dates back to 1975 when Ahmad Karimi, while praising the strong
590 M. KHAMUSHI

Figure 5. Karimi is writing the title sequence of the movie on the body of his horse.
Reproduced from Karimi, Nosrat. The Carriage Driver (Tehran, Iran: Mitra, 2004 [1383 SH]),
p. 300.

structure and good style of the movie, believed that Nosrat Karimi, had
shown people, their environment and their relationships very realistically
with the help of Italian neorealism.26 In his book, Omid wrote about the
similarity of the movie to the Italian neorealist films.27 Mehrabi wrote
about the movie like this: “ … There are many tangible objective moments
in the film” and after it he wrote that Karimi opened a new style in the
Iranian cinema with this film.28 Parviz Nouri, a famous critic of the
Iranian cinema, has also used the term “flowing realism in Doroshkechi”
for the movie.29 Behzad Eshqi also knew Italian Neorealism as a muse for
Karimi’s films.30 Abbas Kiarostami believed that Nosrat Karimi was the
first Iranian director who made a neorealist film (Doroshkechi)
(Figure 6).31
 QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM AND VIDEO 591

Figure 6. A photograph of the movie’s offstage where Karimi is filming. Reproduced from
Karimi, Nosrat. The Carriage Driver (Tehran, Iran: Mitra, 2004 [1383 SH]), p. 296.

Although the aforementioned people have expressed their views on

whether the film is realistic or neorealist, Farrokh Ghaffari’s interesting
comment is more focused on the satirical element of the film; An element
that cannot be seen largely in prominent neorealist films such as Paisa
(Paisan, Dir. Roberto Rossellini, 1946), Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves,
Vittorio De Sica, 1948) or La Terra Trema (The Earth Trembles, Dir.
Luchino Visconti, 1948). Farrokh Ghaffari has commented on the film:
“The story of this Tehrani Hamlet, who takes his complex out on his
mother and a shrewd carriage driver, is a very funny satire. Nosrat Karimi
can make comedies in the style of Italian director in future.”32 Whereas,
the element of satire is not considered one of the characteristics of neoreal-
ist films, and the extensive existence of this element seems to be in clear
contradiction with neorealism.
592 M. KHAMUSHI

Figure 7. The House is burning in the last sequence of the movie. Reproduced from “The
Carriage Driver.” Setareh Cinema (22 April 1971 [2 Ordibehesht 1350 SH]), p. 36.

The Element of Satire

The movie Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver) has the characteristics of neo-
realism, but there is an element in it that one cannot see in neorealist
films, which is the element of satire. The atmosphere of neorealist films
depicting human distress during and after World War II was sorrowful
and black and apart from a few happy or sweet moments in these films,
there was not such moments in them, let alone to be full of happy
moments or to have pleasant endings! But Doroshkechi (Carriage
Driver) was filled with satire and it even had a pleasant ending. The
final sequence of the film, despite depicting the fire in the house, shows
Morteza’s agreement with the marriage of his mother and Gholamali
Khan and the approach of family members to each other instead of
dying with poisoned food (Figure 7).33
If we consider the sorrowful atmosphere as one of the criteria for the
neorealist films, then this film should not be considered a neorealist one.
But by studying history of the neorealism in Italy, we find that since the
1950s, with due attention to the prevailing atmosphere in this country, a
new branch of neorealism has emerged, which was later called pink neore-
alism. For example, in 1952 a movie called Due soldi di speranza (two
cents worth of hope, Dir. Renato Castelleni) was screened in Italy. The film
 QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM AND VIDEO 593

was a fruit of Italian neorealist cinema; but Interestingly, the element of

satire could be seen in the whole film, and even the film ended with a
happy ending; there was no trace of the bitterness or an open ending at the
end. Liehm believed that the Due soldi di speranza (two cents worth of
hope, 1952) was the first product of the pink neorealism and it followed
the neorealist approach.34
The most successful directors of pink neorealism were Luigi Comencini
and Dino Risi.35 Some famous pink neorealist films of these two directors
were as follows: Pane, amore e fantasia (Bread Love and Dreams, Dir. Luigi
Comencini, 1953), Pane, amore e gelosia (Bread, Love and Jealousy, Dir.
Luigi Comencini, 1954), Pane, amore e … (Scandal in Sorrento, Dir. Dino
Risi, 1955), Poveri ma belli (Poor, But Handsome, Dir Dino Risi, 1957)
and Belle ma povere (Pretty but Poor, Dir Dino Risi, 1957). There were
other directors who made memorable pink neorealist films too like Luciano
Emmer who directed the movie Le Ragazze di Piazza di Spagna (Three
Girls from Rome) in 1952.
The formation of pink neorealism was rooted in the socio-political events
of Italy after World War II. From the 1950s onward, Italian neorealist cin-
ema came under the criticism of politicians, one of whom was the influen-
tial politician Andreotti. Giulio Andreotti an influential politician who had
direct influence on government grants as well as censorship published an
open letter against neorealist films in January 1952 in a Christian-
Democratic weekly named Libertas. He lamented the neorealist trend in
the Italian cinema and the negative image that he thought it had brought
for the country. In his letter, Andreotti took direct aim at De Sica, who
was rebuked for depicting a gloomy reflection in the movie Umberto D.
and he was urged to be more optimistic (Cardullo, 2011:26)!
In addition to opposing influential people such as Andreotti, distancing
from the war and the need for people to watch happier films made some
directors working in the style of neorealism make films with happier
themes while adhering to the approach of neorealism. Even De Sica, who
later in reply to Andreotti’s letter had stated that if he had had to produce
the movie Umberto D. one more time he would have changed nothing
except to remove the somewhat happy final shots in which children were
playing; exactly the kind of optimistic conclusion that Andreotti seemingly
had called for,36 directed a satirical film titled L’oro di Napoli (The Gold of
Naples) in 1954 and in the next year he acted in the movie Pane, amore
e … (Scandal in Sorrento, Dir. Dino Risi) and this trend continued in his
artistic life.
In fact, pink neorealism was regarded as a political reduction of neoreal-
ism;37 because it lacked the sharp criticism to aim the politicians. In the
films of pink neorealism everything was rosy and pleasant: even social and
594 M. KHAMUSHI

physical problems such as poverty and sickness. By this kind of neorealism

people like Giulio Andreotti could not claim that the neorealism defamed
the Italian cinema!38
The movie Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver) is intermingled with satire and
comedy from the beginning until almost the end. For example, the scenes
in which the movie starts in a cemetery, or the scenes in which Akbar
Khan and his wife plan to convince Morteza to marry their daughter or the
scene in which a person comes to Zinat Sadat’s house to buy it or the
scene in which Gholamali Khan, his son and Zinat Sadat dissuade the cus-
tomer from buying it or the scene in which Morteza divides the house into
two parts by walling the yard to cut off the communication between
Gholamali Khan and his mother are all full of satire.
Nosrat Karimi seems to have selected the language of satire for his neo-
realist film for two reasons: the first reason goes back to his happy charac-
ter. Since he was in his teens and studied in the industrial school, he had a
funny personality who made others laugh. At his school workshop, some
long and short tables were provided for tall and short students, but he
deliberately went behind one of the tall tables and he put a tin can under
his feet and made the children laugh while working. One day, one of the
school officials, who saw him in this condition, humiliated him before
other students and said that his real place was in the acting high school
instead of the industrial school of Iran and Germany; then he went to the
acting school and started to study there!39
After his return to Iran from Europe, he made puppet and animated
films for several years before making the movie Doroshkechi (Carriage
Driver); movies that had happy and cheerful atmosphere. After
Doroshkechi, Karimi continued the same humorous trend in his subse-
quent films. His following films (as a director) were not neorealist, but like
Doroshkechi, the element of satire was very prominent in all of them.
Interestingly, the films in which he was just an actor and not the director
were still satirical films such as Hakim-bashi (Hakim, Dir. Parviz Nouri,
1972), Hasan Siah (Hasan the black, Dir. Parviz Osanlu, 1972) and Ayalvar
(The Married Man, Dir. Parviz Nouri, 1973).
The second reason can go back to the background of banning Iranian
films inspired by neorealism. Four movies titled Jonoub-e Shahr (South of
the City, Dir. Farrokh Ghaffari, 1958), Qeysar (Qeysar, Dir Masoud Kimiai,
1969), Gav (The Cow, Dir. Dariush Mehrjui, 1969) and Aramesh dar hozur
Digaran (Tranquility in the Presence of Others, Dir. Nasser Taghvai, 1973)
had neorealist characteristics. The movie Jonoub-e Shahr (South of the
City) was banned on charges of drawing a false image of the south of
Tehran and also having leftist tendencies and was re-released several years
later with censorship and having another name! The movies Qeysar
 QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM AND VIDEO 595

(Qeysar), Gav (The Cow) and Aramesh dar hozur Digaran (Tranquility in
the Presence of Others) were also banned for some time for political rea-
sons, defaming of the society, showing the backwardness of some parts of
Iran, and some other reasons.40
Knowing these backgrounds, perhaps Karimi did not want to make a
film with a dark atmosphere and he preferred to make his film with a fat
satire spice so that he did not provoke anybody. In an interview, Karimi
himself believed that his film had the style of satirical realism.41 The style
of satirical realism that Karimi pointed out in the interview is the one that
is highly consistent with pink neorealism in the Italian cinema.

Conclusion
Although some Iranian directors had made some movies with neorealist
characteristics since 1958, the movie Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver) was so
successful in containing neorealist elements which was called by some the
first neorealist film of the Iranian cinema. The subject of this film was con-
sidered a very tangible and realistic for the Iranian society. In this film, like
many neorealist films in the Italian cinema, we are faced with a combin-
ation of professional and nonprofessional actors. The most famous actor/
actress in this film was Shahla Riahi (in the role of Zinat Sadat) who had
played various roles in theater and cinema for many years. Other actors
were mostly newcomers in the Iranian cinema. Even the best actor/actress
in this film, Nosrat Karimi, experienced his first cinematic role by acting in
this film. Arghavan (in the role of Puri, Zinat Sadat’s daughter) was intro-
duced to Iranian cinema through this film and was not known before.
Another lasting role in the film was that of the ten-year-old Babak Karimi
(in the role of Hassan, son of Zinat Sadat). The subject of this film, like
neorealist films, was not about a particular person, but about a social issue
which in this film was the negative view of remarriage of a mother after
the death of her husband, and also the poverty and misery in the society.
Due to these features, Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver) was a neorealist film.
However, due to the existence of a prominent element of satire in the
movie and its happy ending, it cannot be considered under the influence of
the neorealist films like Roma citta aperta (Rome, Open City, Dir. Roberto
Rossellini, 1945), Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, Vittorio De Sica,
1948) or La Terra Trema (The Earth Trembles, Dir. Luchino Visconti,
1948) which mostly had dark and sorrowful atmosphere, with a bitter or
open ending. Due to its satirical feature, Doroshkechi (Carriage Driver) is
considered as a movie inspired by pink neorealism which itself was a
branch of early neorealism.
596 M. KHAMUSHI

Instead of commenting negatively on Iranian cinema during the Pahlavi

era and its obscenity which has become a cliched issue during these years,
we need to take a research-based look at the creative films of that period,
such as The Carriage Driver. As shown in this article, The Carriage Driver
is influenced by neorealism, and similar research can be done on some
other Pahlavi-era films in order to show the influence of neorealism on
them too. According to the author, the roots of post-revolutionary cinema’s
influence from Italian neorealism go back to Pahlavi-era cinema, one of the
best examples of which is The Carriage Driver. Most likely, this film is the
only pink neorealist film in the Iranian cinema during the Pahlavi period;
but studying the validity of this claim or considering post-revolutionary
Iranian films with the criteria of Italian pink neorealism requires another
time and independent research.

Notes
1. Weinberger, “Neorealism, Iranian Style,” 8.
2. Bigoli, The Impact of Italian Neorealism, 1.
3. Karimi, The Carriage Driver, 311.
4. “Educated People of the Iranian Cinema,” 9.
5. Mojamme, “Does Anyone Remember?,” 21.
6. See note 3 above, 311–2.
7. Shirazi, “Throwing into the Universe,” 20.
8. Verdone, Storia del cinema italiano, 52–3.
9. Of course, in most neorealist films we are faced with a combination of professional
and non-professional actors.
10. Shahla Riahi played the role of Zinat Sadat in the film.
11. Amini, A Hundred Movies of the Iranian Cinema, 122.
12. “Arghavan,” 69.
13. He is son of Nosrat Karimi and still works as an actor in the Iranian cinema.
14. See note 3 above, 20.
15. “Baba Shamal: Controversial and Expensive Movie of 1971,”53.
16. Reisfirooz, Camera, act … cut [What happened to me], 163.
17. See note 3 above, 29–30.
18. It should be noted that in the traditional and patriarchal Iranian society, sometimes
the brother dominated his family members as much as the father, especially his
sisters, particularly if the father of the family was dead or the brother had been the
eldest one among the other brothers of the family.
19. One of the squares in Tehran which is now called Razi square; The Persian word
Gomrok means customs or tariff.
20. See note 3 above, 25–6.
21. Ibid, 21–3.
22. Keyvan Sepehr (1939–2010) was a journalist from Shiraz, Iran.
23. Sepehr, “Our Familiar Carriage Driver,” 7.
24. Karimi (director), The Carriage Driver, minutes 15–16.
25. “Carriage a Good Film,” 69.
26. Karimi, “Why Does the Carriage Driver Drive Slowly?” 12.
 QUARTERLY REVIEW OF FILM AND VIDEO 597

27. Omid, History of the Iranian Cinema: 1900–1979582.

28. Mehrabi, History of the Iranian Cinema, 139.
29. Nouri, “I Am Charlie Chaplin Too,” 19.
30. Eshqi, “A Good Artist Is a Dead Artist,” 23.
31. See note 7 above, 19.
32. See note 11 above, 124.
33. See note 24 above, minutes 107–115.
34. Liehm, Passion and Defiance, 141.
35. Ibid, p. 142.
36. Cardullo, Andre Bazin and Italian Neorealism, 26.
37. Burke, A Companion to Italian Cinema, 183.
38. See note 34 above.
39. See note 7 above, 18–9.
40. Mahdavi, “Previous Background,” 19.
41. See note 26 above, 13.

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1975 [16 Farvardin 1354]): 12–13.
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Mehrabi, Massoud. History of the Iranian Cinema. Tehran, Iran: The Author, 1993 [1371].
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Reisfirooz, Mehdi. Camera, Act … Cut [What Happened to Me]. Tehran, Iran: Sarzamin
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