The cinematography of Bahman Ghobadi from the perspective of Auteur theory

This research aims to analyse the cinematography of Kurdish origin Iranian film director Bahman Ghobadi through the perspective of Auteur Theory. Concordantly, the six full-length films directed by himself between the years of 1999-2012 were scrutinised. The text analyses, narratives, dramatic structures, and characters of the films that written, directed and produced by himself, which are A Time for Drunken Horses, Turtles Da Fly, Half-Moon, Nobody Knows About The Persian Cats and Song Of My Mother's Country and Turkish-Iran co-produced Rhino Season were probed. Whether he is an auteur director or not was researched throughout the study by investigating contextual and formal features of his films via considering three antecedents of Andrew Harris, which are 'technical mastery, personal style and inner meaning'. From the perspective of Auteur theory, Ghobadi's attributes of technical mastery, the characteristics of the language of his cinematography in terms of forming his own style and the features of the inner meaning, place/environment, characters and theme of his films were examined. Overall, the research argues he is an auteur director; by considering common themes among his films, characters in the films are formed successively, utilising places as different characters and demonstrating a new reality through the metaphoric expressions he used. Keywords: Auteur Theory, Bahman Ghobadi, Director Cinematography