Abstract

Samira Makhmalbaf’s The Apple (1998) is a docudrama that addresses the true story of twin sisters, Massoumeh and Zahra Naderi, who leave their home for the first time at age 12, after spending their lives confined by their parents’ choice. Although their motor and communicative abilities are impaired, this does not stop them from venturing into the outside world, with the help of a social worker, other children, and the women of the neighborhood. We propose to analyze the film as an allegory of the sociopolitical condition of Iran after the 1979 uprising. The Naderi family operates as a micro-representation of power structures: the father personifies the State and the mother the Islamic clergy. Both infantilize and disable "the people" (the girls), under a rhetoric of protection and care, depriving them of basic development.

The apple and the mirror will serve as visual and narrative symbols, fostering the search for freedom of two girls maturing within the context of structural violence in a young republic. As a theoretical framework, we will examine George Herbert Mead’s social psychology on the formation of the "self," Ann Kaplan’s ethical proposals regarding the act of "witnessing," and Nirmala Erevelles’ transnational and gender-based disability studies. Thus, while the State and the clergy (the parents) restrict identity, it is social interaction and the ethical perspective of the community that allow the twins to emancipate themselves and achieve subjectivity.

Keywords: cinema | childhood | gender | disability | development | identity