Discourse analysis of acid attack representation in Iranian cinema; a Case study of the movie “Lantouri”"

Recently, the acid attack has dramatically increased in Iran and still targets women as past. Cinema is one of the influential factors on the rise or fall of this phenomenon. Cinema can shape the audience's understanding of this phenomenon by identifying the power resources in forming this phenomenon, highlighting some of its related meanings, and marginalizing others. In this respect, "Lantouri" movie was produced in 2016 in Iran, representing an acid attack on a social worker girl, analyzed in this article. The research method used in this article is Discourse Analysis, which examined different discourses of the "Lantouri" movies based on the discourse analysis theory of Laclau & Mouffe. A couple of main discourses in this movie, "critique of the acid attacker" and "critique of society," have been identified. These discourses are in close opposition to each other. People belonging to different social strata define the acid attack phenomenon from their perspective and form their discourses. While the discourse of Critique of acid attacker challenges the acid attacker as a sick and anti-social person, society's discourse blames our society's structures as the leading cause of forming this phenomenon. This discourse also knows acid attacker as a victim of society's structures. At the end of the movie and after a long conflict between two discourses, the discourse of Critique of structures wins and announces its future dominance over the society.