What it means
کارگردانی (kargardani) is the abstract noun for directing as a craft, a profession, an art. کارگردان (kargardan) is the person, the director; کارگردانی is what they do, the work itself. The pattern is the same as نویسنده (writer) to نویسندگی (writing as profession), or معلم (teacher) to معلمی (teaching).
You use kargardani when you talk about the discipline, the body of skills, the field of work. “He studied kargardani at university,” “her kargardani in this film is excellent,” “the kargardani of Iranian New Wave has international standing.”
How to use it
asghar farhadi dar kargardani be daghigh-budan-e bazigaran maaroof ast.
Asghar Farhadi is known in directing for the precision he gets from his actors.
اصغر فرهادی در کارگردانی به دقیق بودن بازیگران معروف است.
man dar daneshgah-e tehran kargardani khandam.
I studied directing at Tehran University.
من در دانشگاه تهران کارگردانی خواندم.
Where it sits
کارگردانی is one of the prestige professions in Iranian arts. Iranian cinema has been internationally respected since the 1970s (Kiarostami, Mehrjui, Beyzaie) and the 2000s revival put a second wave of directors on the global map (Farhadi, Panahi, Rasoulof, Maryam Meghdam). Studying kargardani at IRIB University or at Tehran University’s faculty of fine arts is a serious educational path. The state-run Khaneh-ye Cinema (Iran Cinema House) and the Farabi Cinema Foundation are the institutional anchors of the field.
The political weight
Directing in Iran is also a politically charged profession. Several leading directors (Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof) have been arrested, banned from filmmaking, and prosecuted for the political content of their work. The annual Fajr Film Festival is the official showcase, and what gets shown there or excluded from it is read as a political signal. When Iranians talk about kargardani they often mean both the craft and the difficult conditions under which the craft is practiced.
Where it comes from
کارگردانی is built from کار (kar, work) plus گرداندن (gardanidan, to turn, to manage, to run something), giving کارگردان (kargardan, one who runs the work, the director). The یـ suffix on the end turns the agent noun into an abstract profession noun. The whole construction is Pure Persian, no Arabic borrowing involved, which is unusual for a modern professional vocabulary in Iran.
In our voice
If you want to read Iranian cinema from inside the language, کارگردانی is the word the reviews use. Iranian film criticism is a serious genre in Persian-language press; learning the word lets you read it.
References
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