Chess of the Wind

Screened publicly just once before it was banned and then lost for decades, this rediscovered jewel of Iranian cinema reemerges to take its place as one of the most singular and astonishing works of the country’s pre-revolution New Wave. This hypnotically stylized murder mystery, awash in shivery period atmosphere, unfolds in an ornate, candlelit mansion where a web of greed, violence, and betrayal ensnares the heirs to a family fortune as they vie for control of their recently-deceased matriarch’s estate.

(Mohammad Reza Aslani, Iran, In Farsi with w/ Eng sub, 93 min, 1976, Digital)

Cosponsored by the Arabic Program