The Iranian Journey of “Post and Beam” by Alice Munro

This article discusses the film Canaan (2008), directed by Mani Haghighi and written by Haghighi himself and by Asghar Farhadi, as an adaptation of Alice Munro’s short story “Post and Beam” (2000). It aims to trace the medial, modal and aesthetic transformation entailed by the Iranian journey of a Canadian short story, across different languages and cultures. Cross-cultural semiotic resources include the original soundtrack by Christophe Rezai, dialogues, costumes, a renamed title, interior design, vertical panoramic shots over Tehran. The trans-medial change is also sustained by tropes unfolding across the visual and audio tracks: blood, cloths, keys, and plants. Evoking the ‘Post and Beam’ architectural structure of Munro’s title, semiotic and symbolic planes then outline horizontal and vertical axes, for the representation of characters, setting, and diegesis. Thought in light of the late-2022 protest and the repression in Iran, this article primarily devotes attention to the role of its female protagonist Mina, interpreted by Taraneh Alidoosti, who was detained for three weeks in December 2022 for supporting the protests.