Mohammad Reza Aslani’s “Chess of the Wind”

Chess of the WInd (شطرنج باد) (1976)

Released just prior to Iran’s revolution and lost until now, this is a subversive, modern parable of corruption, greed and patriarchy told with Kubrick level detail and mise-en-scene

With the original negatives thought lost and having a release just prior to Iran’s revolution in 1979 to which it received a hostile reception, it’s miraculous that Aslani’s own children stumbled across the negatives in a junk shop in 2014 which led to the negatives being smuggled out of Iran and to Paris the film was restored with the support of Martin Scorsese’s non-profit organisation, The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, in association with the Cineteca di Bologna. On release of the restoration in 2020, the film has received global acclaim.

Having strong female characters and same sex relationships along with its pristine presentation, it feels incredibly fresh and modern and not out of tune with the themes explored in recent films like The Menu, Triangle of Sadness or Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. Telling the story of an upperclass Iraninan household and the machinisations of its occupants in trying to get their hands on the fortune behind it, it weaves a tight knit tale that defies continually defies tropes.

Houshang Baharloo’s cinematography and Sheida Gharachedaghi’s atmospheric score along with the intricate mise-en-scene makes for masterful cinema. Sadly, Aslani, who made this when he was 33, never made another film though he did input into the restoration. With Aslani now being 79, one hopes he has some scripts tucked away somewhere. Thinking more broadly, Iran has produced some of our greatest contemporary directors under the worst conditions but where would Iranian cinema be now if the revolution never occurred?