An analysis of the recent development of persian Cinema should primarily mention its origins and history, especially since Iranian cinema always has been so closely linked to the political circumstances dominating the social reality. Its outset is generally accepted to have begun around 1900, when Mirza Ebrahim Khan Akkas Bashi, the official photographer of Muzaffar al-Din Shah, shot the first Iranian documentary.2 Despite this relatively late start, Iranian cinema caught up to the West and developed a lively film industry.