Abstract/Summary

This article discusses the complex cultural and theoretical relationships between France and Iran, Europe and the Middle East in recent intermedial work by the film-maker Abbas Kiarostami. Through the installation Looking At Tazieh (2004), the film Shirin (2008) and the staging and direction of the opera Così fan tutte, the article explores the philosophical and contextual implications of spectacle within these trans-cultural productions. In particular, it discusses how French cultural interventions into Kiarostami’s recent intermedial work can be rethought productively outside the remit of francophone or transnational cinemas, instead refocusing on the intermediality of spectacle and modes of enculturated looking in these three recent productions.