Flânerie, virtual-mobilized gaze and urban experience in Abbas Kirasotami’s The Experience (1973)

This article offers an analysis of one of Abbas Kiarostami’s lesser-known films, The Experience. Focusing on the urban experience of its young protagonist, against the backdrop of Tehran during the height of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's urbanization project, the film is examined for its treatment of urban attractions, consumer-culture, and the boy’s interaction with them as a young immigrant in modern Tehran. The study highlights Kiarostami’s deviation from typical critiques of the modern city with a moralist standpoint which was prevalent at the time, presenting a nuanced exploration of the urban experience of its subject. The Experience can be seen as a microcosm of the broader encounter many Iranian urbanites had with modernity and consumer culture, embodied in Mohammad’s journey from naive hope to actualize the images presented to him to the eventual realization of his socioeconomic realities. The film portrays his interaction with the city through flânerie and employment of a virtual-mobilized gaze. This gaze becomes an agent for the transformative impact of urban visual culture, as it replaces the reality with a virtual world of commodities. The article positions The Experience as a seminal piece in Iranian cinema, highlighting Kiarostami's representation of the subjective experience of an individual within modern Tehran.