Media Post-coloniality and the Ethereal Persian ‘Empress’: How Hollywood Weaponized the Nostalgia of Exile

The osmosis between Iranian exile, Oriental repertoires, and the commodification of nostalgia in film contemporary1 culture alludes to Disney reproduction East that is capitalized by Hollywood’s invisible hand. Orientalist logic via old civilization Achaemenid grandeur conveyed Hamid Naficy’s (1991) reference Edward Said’s (1978) ‘imaginary2 geography’—the inventive tool narration augments tales anecdotes exilic narratives, while heightening essentialism East. European modeling coronation, bejeweled scepters royalty under Pahlavi period (1941-1979), cinematic repertoires Iranians are perpetuated for viewers fetishization, lust, enchantment. televised 1967 coronation Queen Farah (b. 1938) solidified trope Persian ‘Empress’ through picturesque markers rulership (550-330 BCE). Media3 propagations paradisiacal can be paralleled current illusions Orient presented Paterson (Jarmusch, 2016), starring exiled actress Golshifteh Farahani. I refer expand on spectacle ‘nostalgia’, desire a distant homeland. interpretation ‘nostalgia’—a factor expounds how relics objects induce longing ahistorical. Objects inexplicably weaponized Hollywood inventions Near Eastern characters serve as palpable symbols skewed representations women, sexuality, exotic4 (Ahmed, 2006). Poetry, nostalgia, fictional 2016) allude vision imperialist project Orientalism. imaginary power color media fashioning politically permanent subject interest—Iranians East, augured pertinent era post-coloniality5 preservation orientalism, rather than Orient.