Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Ideology and resistance in Reza Mirkarimi’s Dokhtar, Ghasr-e Shirin, and The Night Guardian: A Van Dijkian critical discourse analysis

Articles in Press

Document Type : Scientific Research Manuscript

Author
Sajjad Mahmoudi
PhD in Political Science, Iranian Issues, Faculty of Political Science, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran
10.22035/jicr.2026.3549.3772
Abstract
This study examines the representation of ideology and resistance in three films directed by Reza Mirkarimi: Dokhtar, Ghasr-e Shirin, and The Night Guardian. Drawing on Teun A. van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis, the article investigates how power relations, patriarchal authority, institutional control, and the crisis of social trust are constructed and challenged within cinematic discourse. The analysis is conducted at three interrelated levels: text, cognition, and society. At the textual level, the study focuses on dialogue, silence, narrative organization, spatial arrangements, and visual signs. At the cognitive level, it explores the mental models, fears, moral conflicts, and gradual transformations of the characters. At the social level, it connects these elements to broader structures such as family, work relations, gendered authority, and social morality. The findings indicate that resistance in Mirkarimi’s cinema is not represented as direct confrontation or revolutionary rupture; rather, it emerges as an internal, ethical, and situated practice within existing social structures. The family functions as a central cultural arena in which authority is both reproduced and questioned. Across the three films, the intensity of critique develops from implicit familial tension to a deeper interrogation of moral responsibility and institutional distrust. The study argues that Mirkarimi’s cinema articulates a form of “internal-structural ethical resistance” grounded in everyday actions, silence, care, and moral choice.
Keywords
critical discourse analysis
ethical resistance
ideology
Iranian cinema
Subjects
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Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 19 May 2026

  • Receive Date 21 September 2025
  • Revise Date 21 April 2026
  • Accept Date 19 May 2026