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Establishes reform as a cinematic category, the inheritor of revolutionary cinema in certain state-controlled cinemas. It surveys the contentious position of film in revolutionary discourse in Iran and connects "reform cinema" to the scholarship on Third Cinema and Post-Third Cinema aesthetics. This chapter also establishes Mohammad Khatami's professional career as an organizing scheme for the book and discusses the tenets most important to his political platform.

In 1992 Khatami abruptly left his position in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and he cited the strict regulation of art as the reason for his resignation. This chapter examines the circumstances leading to his resignation and, in particular, it investigates the case of Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s controversial film Time for Love (1991). The release of Time for Love, which openly depicts a married woman’s affair, sparked a media frenzy, as conservative religious leaders, policymakers, and commentators blamed Khatami for its release, since the film had gone through the Ministry’s inspection process. The criticism launched against Khatami became so severe that he was forced to respond publically and defend his support of the film. This chapter examines the debates about Time for Love as they unfolded in newspaper editorials, political speeches, and religious sermons. These debates instruct us that the film industry helped to shape certain reformist ideas in the early 1990s, and it was Time for Love’s appropriation of a mystic aesthetic that appealed to these budding reformists.

This chapter examines the postwar expansion of the IRGC. A key transformation during this period was the decision by Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to avoid total demobilization by instead expanding the purviews of the IRGC and the Basij to include morals policing, domestic security, and state-funded construction. With expanded interests and a larger portfolio, the IRGC gained a greater stake in the regime and more power to influence domestic politics. The IRGC used its influence to counter the reformist movement. Through grassroots activism and outright political pressure, the IRGC stymied President Mohammad Khatami’s reformist government. Backed by war veteran activist groups such as Ansar-e Hezbollah, the IRGC became the leading bulwark against social and political change in Iran. It became the chief advocate for the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and a defender of hardliner and conservative interests.