After the Iranian ‘revolution’ in 1979, film became public enemy number one. Viewed with suspicion, this infidel medium became the target of state repression and, at the same time, the site of a necessary and astonishing inventiveness. As a result, (some) Iranian cinema has been subject to widespread celebration throughout the film festivals and art house cinemas of the West. Mute asked the journal Melancholic Troglodytes – which has consistently covered Iranian politics, history and culture – whether western support for dissenting Iranian voices is not also a form of ‘imperial grooming’; the neoliberal cultivation of liberal opposition to fundamentalism for its own ends.

The Conundrum

In commissioning an article about ‘imperial grooming’ and Iranian cinema, Mute magazine has posed Melancholic Troglodytes an interesting conundrum. The problem as we understand it, is as follows:

Patagonia has a long history of colonial oppression. But the corporate conquistadors behind the current round of evictions are more renowned for their interest in worthy causes than their cut-throat approach to real estate, reports Sebastian Hacher

In the extreme south of Argentina lies Patagonia, a region which encompasses every imaginable climate and terrain from turquoise rivers and lakes to desert and glaciers. Below the 'Cordillera', the pristine snow capped mountain range of the southern Andes which separates Argentina and Chile, lies the flat and fertile expanse of the pampas on which sheep and cattle graze.