Journal for Religion, Film and Media (JRFM)

THE LADY OF HEAVEN (UK 2011) and Representations of Early Shi‘i Islam in Films and TV Series

2024-10-02T05:59:33+00:00

This article examines the portrayal of early Shi‘i Islamic history in films and television series, highlighting the range of interpretative approaches and varying degrees of historical accuracy. These productions aim to educate audiences about the formative moments of Islam but are often criticized for their lack of historical fidelity and failure to be sensitive to religious contexts. Sectarian tensions further complicate these depictions, particularly in light of the diverse interpretations of early Shi‘i Islamic history. This article focuses on the representation of key events from early Shi‘i history, in particular in the film THE LADY OF HEAVEN (Eli King, UK 2011). The film’s selection for this study was driven by the controversy it sparked, leading to its ban not only in several Sunni-majority countries but also in the secular United Kingdom and in Shi‘i-majority Iran, making it a unique illustrative case.

Apocalypse and Shi‘i Messianism in Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema

2025-02-14T18:08:08+00:00

This article examines the representation of themes related to Shi‘i messianism (mahdaviyat) in post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. At first, the article demonstrates Avini’s theory of Illuminative Cinema (cinema ishrāqi) as an approach to represent spiritual and religious themes in cinema. Then, the doctrine of Waiting (intiẓār) in Twelver Shi'a will be analyzed in three films including GHADAMGHA (FOOTHOLD, Mohammad-Mahdi Asgarpour, IR 2004), INJA CHERAQI ROSHAN AST (HERE, A SHINING LIGHT, Reza Mirkarimi, IR 2002), and MARMOULAK (LIZARD, Kamal Tabrizi, IR 2003). Representation of the apocalypse in these films do not resemble the science-fiction genre, but is part of the philosophy of Waiting in the Shi‘i worldview. Labov’s model of narrative analysis is employed to analyze the films. In Illuminative Cinema, the structural elements of narrative should serve to represent religious and spiritual themes. The article shows that the concept of Waiting plays a pivotal role in Post-Revolutionary Iranian cinema. Religious themes of Waiting are presented within the context of current Iranian social problems in these three films. They criticize the present condition of society and describe the ideal society waiting for the Promised Mahdi. A comparative analysis within the article indicates that unlike Hollywood apocalyptic films, Iranian Shi‘i cinema’s depiction of apocalyptic themes, including Waiting, demonstrates less susceptibility to secularizing influences.

Gender, State, and Religion in Maysaloun Hamoud's IN BETWEEN (IL/FR 2016)

2025-02-04T15:16:57+00:00

BAR BAHR (IN BETWEEN, Maysaloun Hamoud, IL/FR) is an Israeli-Palestinian feature film from 2016 that follows the lives of three young Palestinian women living together in Tel Aviv as they navigate the complexities of their religious, national, and gender identities. The film explores the conflicts of a new Palestinian generation living within a Jewish-majority society and constantly balancing both the demands of their Palestinian and/or Muslim tradition as well as the struggles of a modern and urban lifestyle in a secular environment. After a brief introduction to the postcolonial discourse on gender, state, and religion in the WANA region, my paper discusses key elements of IN BETWEEN with regard to the protagonists’ gender-state-religion arrangements. It becomes evident that the film’s narrative neither caters Orientalist or anti-Muslim stereotypes, nor does it align with the tradition of classic Palestinian cinema. I argue that the film’s achievement lies in this very suspension of essentialist notions. Ultimately, the film is also placed within a broader context of feminist cinema in WANA.

Escaping the Arrangement

2025-02-24T06:58:24+00:00

While the issue of forced and arranged marriages is rarely explored by scholars of family sociology in Islamic contexts and seldom occupies a central position in the cinemas of Muslim-majority countries, it appears surprisingly often in European diasporic films portraying Muslim-background migrant characters. The first part of this article outlines key studies on the contested yet persistent practice of arranged marriages in Islam. It is followed by an examination of the recurring plot structure in films addressing the topic. Regardless of whether these films adopt a comedic or dramatic tone and whether they are produced exclusively in Europe or co-produced with countries outside Europe (such as Tunisia, Pakistan, or Turkey), young male and female protagonists consistently reject the notion of arranged marriage. Four films are subject to detailed narrative and genre analysis: EAST IS EAST (Damien O’Donnell, UK 1999), AE FOND KISS ... (Ken Loach, UK 2004), VINGAR AV GLAS (WINGS OF GLASS, Reza Bagher, SE 2000), and NOCES (A WEDDING, Stephan Streker, BE 2016). Ultimately, all these films discredit the practice of arranged and forced marriages, often linking it to the collapse of paternal authority. They also highlight the unequal gender dynamics at play, showing that refusing an arranged marriage tends to carry far greater risks and consequences for women than for men.

"I don’t know what kind of Muslim I am."

2025-03-03T13:22:05+00:00

This article examines evolving representations of Islam and Muslims in American television through case studies of the series RAMY (Hulu, US 2019–2022) and MO (Netflix, US 2022–2025). Drawing on a diachronic framework that traces portrayals of Muslim identities from the early 2000s to the present, the study situates these series within a broader historical and cultural context. Early depictions, as critiqued by scholars like Amir Hussain in 2009, often relegated Muslims to one-dimensional roles characterized by negativity and violence, reinforcing exclusionary narratives. In contrast, RAMY and its counterpart MO signal a significant shift toward more authentic and more complex representations. These series foreground intersections of race, religion, and cultural identity, offering narratives that are deeply personal and structurally aware.

Disorienting “Western” Viewers with Nacer Khemir’s Desert Trilogy

2025-05-18T16:30:23+00:00

In this essay, I explore tensions that arise when creating alternative cinematic visions of Muslim life, specifically frictions emerging from the goal of shifting public perception of the community and patterns of self-orientalization. Here, I complicate assumptions about the representation of Islam by looking at a self-articulated presentation of Muslims through the narrative feature series the Desert Trilogy, by Tunisian director Nacer Khemir (born 1948). I argue that Khemir is ensnared by ahistorical Islamic nostalgia and largely reinforces romantic orientalist aesthetics in his films. While his portrait of Muslims is much more “positive” than those in the broader archive, it is just as skewed and incomplete as stereotypical images of Muslims as violent terrorists. Ultimately, it seems that he fails to offer a coherent and stable locus for Islam that can dispel misconceptions and mitigate the heavy liability of the “Hollywood Muslim” in Western social consciousness. Khemir’s desire to submit an alternative portrait of Muslims rooted in esoteric Sufi traditions of Islam in combination with his allegorical and anti-realist film style leaves the viewer with a synthetic and saccharine impression of Muslim experience.

The Transcendental Style in the Films of Paul Schrader

2025-02-17T16:37:24+00:00

The career of Paul Schrader is an unusual case in the often-pragmatic US film industry. Schrader coined the term “transcendental style in film” as a theorist in the early 1970s, and when he became a filmmaker shortly thereafter, he tended to create redemptive stories of a distinctly spiritual nature, evidently influenced by his strict Calvinist upbringing. This article examines Schrader's filmography several decades later, offering a film analysis of the trilogy known as Man in a Room, which consists of FIRST REFORMED (US 2017), THE CARD COUNTER (US 2021), and MASTER GARDENER (US 2022). The study first established the qualities of the transcendental style, to provide a basis for determining whether the aesthetics and narratives of Schrader's later films reveal a concern for the transcendent. We determine that the trilogy explores the internal conflicts of middle-aged men who are burdened with a strong sense of guilt and who end up accepting the grace that arrives through (romantic) love. Furthermore, all three films contain defining elements of the transcendental style, although the filmmaker’s desire to reach a mass audiences causes him to use filters typical of commercial cinema and to draw significantly on the sociopolitical circumstances in which the protagonists live.

Call for Papers 12/2 2026

2025-11-07T09:01:45+00:00

Call for Papers 13/1 2027

2025-11-07T09:03:30+00:00

Call for Papers 13/2 2027

2025-11-07T09:04:59+00:00

2025-11-07T08:55:28+00:00

Front Matter

2025-11-07T08:52:28+00:00

Film Review. THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Jonathan Glazer, US/UK/PL 2023)

2025-08-25T11:47:02+00:00

Review of Jonatahan Glazer's award-winning historical fiction drama THE ZONE OF INTEREST.

Song Review. Lady Gaga, “Abracadabra” Interscope Records, US 2025

2025-06-06T06:57:27+00:00

Review of Lady Gaga's song "Abracadabra" from the album Mayhem (2025) with special focus on its references to religious and occult symbols and practices.

Film Review. MOANA 2 (David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller, US 2024)

2025-08-25T12:02:38+00:00

Review of the Disney animation film MOANA 2 (David G. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller, US 2024).

Book Review. Christina Behler, Religion in der digitalen Gesellschaft

2025-08-25T12:20:38+00:00

Review on Christina Behler's monograph Religion in der digitalen Gesellschaft. Wenn der Papst twittert… (2024).

Game Review. A Bohemian Rhapsody in Red – KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE II

2025-05-22T15:27:33+00:00

Review of the 2025 video game KINGDOM COME: DELIVERANCE II by Warhorse Studios and its religious implications.

Representations of Islam and Muslims in Film

2025-09-04T10:23:13+00:00

The editorial of this issue seeks to provide a rich and diverse collection of contributions on aspects of how Islam and Muslims are presented on-screen. The first section of the issue contains articles focused on particular strands of the Islamic tradition or on a specific ethnicity in the Islamic world. The second section is devoted to the wider Islamic diaspora “in the West”, a topic on which we received the largest number of proposals, likely a reflection of the longer history of academic study of this particular theme. The thematic section of this issue concludes with a contribution on a Muslim filmmaker whose work is widely admired as an example of an alternative view on the Islamic tradition.