The sociopolitical changes in current Iran, most notably the Islamic Revolution (1979) and Iraq-Iran War (1980-88), brought the termination of the entertaining aspect of Iranian cinema. In the absence of widespread entertainment, known as filmfarsi musical comedies, and the prevalence of national concerns covering war and revolutionary themes in cinema, the intellectual and less popular New Wave found an opportunity to reemerge and bloom. The New Wave/ Mowj-e Noe, rooted in pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema, became internationally known as the representative of post-revolutionary Iranian Cinema. Highly indebted to European and American Modernist literary and cinematic traditions, New Wave directors found themselves in a disturbing, if not awkward position since a westernized profession in a country run by strong anti-colonial and anti-western ideology seemed contradictory at core. However, the effect of Western culture, especially the American, is not limited to the New Wave and the adaptation of Ernest Hemingway, J. D. Salinger, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and William Faulkner. Iranian popular culture saw many unauthorized adaptations of global Hollywood movies and sitcoms, not only in cinema but also on State TV. By focusing on selected works of the adaptations of American writers and moviemakers, this paper aims to trace the hows and whys of the postcolonial anxiety in post-revolutionary Iran regarding ‘Iranian Cinema’, be it the international fame of American and European film festivals or the adaptation of American culture in Iranian popular culture. It is concluded that Iranian cinema, especially in the adaptation and appropriation realm, is a postcolonial third space. Ideologically problematic and anxious, linguistically diverse, and sometimes anachronistic, it is a fertile ground for world cinema, international conversation, and dialogic creation.

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