javad sharbaf; tahereh solgi
Volume 11, Issue 2 , September 2021, , Pages 149-171
Abstract
Soft power is an instrument for nation-states to alter public opinion and audience mentality. Nearly all powerful nation-states regard it as a tool to create intended changes in target ...
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Soft power is an instrument for nation-states to alter public opinion and audience mentality. Nearly all powerful nation-states regard it as a tool to create intended changes in target societies. Developments in cinema industry and public interest in new media in the Post-War era generated new functions for the industry in the eyes of governments worldwide. As a powerful hypermedia, cinema enjoys extraordinary opportunities to present geographies, ethnicities, nations and policies in artistic ways. Cinematic depiction of various circumstances of a nation can attract attentions, moderate opinions and create new mentalities, sometimes far from reality, in the audience. Cinema exemplifies an instance of the use of soft power, in which continuous use of technological and artistic applications enables mainstream directors to create unreal images of reality, intended by ‘creators of the new world’. Cinema is indeed a good instrument of soft power for depiction of world realities and Russian cinema is no exception. Focusing on the issue of Russian Jews, this article discusses the way they are presented in Russian films. Thematic depiction of the Jewish community in Russian cinema incorporates support for Jewish rights as a suppressed minority in the Russian society. Including old cliché dualities of the 'right and wrong', post-Cold War films, much like the former Soviet cinema, take for granted the Jewish community as 'oppressed and persecuted'.