Skip to main content

'Audiences won’t have seen anything like this': how Iranian film Chess of the Wind was reborn

Mohammad Reza Aslani’s gothic family thriller was banned in Iran and presumed lost, only to be found years later by his children in a junk shop. Now, painstakingly restored, it’s showing at the BFI London film festival

The rediscovery of a film is seldom as fascinating a story as the film itself, but that’s the case with Chess of the Wind (Shatranj-e Baad), directed by Iranian film-maker Mohammad Reza Aslani. It was only screened twice in Tehran in 1976, once to a cinema of hostile critics, and then to an empty cinema – the bad reviews had done their work. “The rediscovery of this film is great for me,” says Aslani, now aged 76, and still living in Tehran. “But it also allows audiences to view Iranian cinema from another perspective, and to discover other auteur film-makers who have been marginalised because of the complexity of their films.”

Critical of the Shah’s royalist government, the film also featured strong female leads and homosexuality, which didn’t endear it to the Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime either. In the politically tumultuous years that followed the Iranian revolution of 1979, the film was banned, and then presumed lost. “Critics in Iran at the time of its release claimed the film didn’t make sense, that my father was just trying to make an intellectual film, to imitate European cinema,” says the director’s daughter, Gita Aslani Shahrestani. But Aslani Shahrestani was determined not to let her father’s legacy languish. A writer and academic based in Paris, she was uniquely suited to the task. “About seven years ago I was working on my PhD about auteur cinema in Iran, and this film was part of it, so I started to look for the film.”

Continue reading...

Source- World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3jgUUNk

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Aukey Omnia 65W PD GaN charger: Power and versatility

Gallium Nitride chargers are the single biggest innovation to come to the relatively staid world of charging bricks. The size advantage can’t be overstated. Combined with USB-C, it makes using a single charger for all your devices a very realistic solution. Aukey is just one of the brands to have dived headfirst into the world of GaN chargers with a wide portfolio of products. In fact, I reviewed the company’s 100W charger recently. However, with charging sockets at a premium, the single port charger wasn’t quite cutting it for me. Now, I’ve been testing the Aukey Omnia 65W PD GaN charger for the last few weeks. It aims to solve just that problem. How well does it perform? We find out in the Android Authority  review of the Aukey Omnia 65W PD GaN charger. Aukey 65W PD GaN charger: What is it? Credit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority A smaller counterpart to the Aukey 100W PD GaN charger we reviewed recently, the 65W charger takes portability up a notch. It’s even smal...

Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus review: Modular and powerful

There are many types of laptops. However, gaming laptops are the biggest culprit for overheating. They have the strongest CPUs in the laptop space along with powerful GPUs. Both work really hard when gaming and it’s hard to keep them cool in the process. Some laptop coolers work for your everyday tasks and they’re fine. It takes something a little extra to work with gaming laptops and that is what Cooler Master was going for with the NotePal U3 Plus. Here is our review to see if it works. Check out more laptop stuff here: The best gaming laptops you can buy right now The best laptop coolers for work and play What is the Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus? Credit: Joe Hindy / Android Authority The Cooler Master NotePal U3 Plus is a higher end laptop cooler. It features a metal design with rubber accents, two little nubs on the back for cable management, and three 80mm fans pushing out 45 CFM of air on max speed. There is also USB pass-through so you don’t lose the USB port, b...

Huawei Watch Fit hands on: The skinny Apple Watch

The Huawei Watch Fit looks like what you’d get if you threw a Huawei Band 4 Pro and a Huawei Watch GT 2 into an Apple Watch blender. It’s arguably a more fashion-forward wearable than a traditional fitness tracker or standard smartwatch, but it still packs enough smarts to fit in the “Huawei Watch” line rather than the “Huawei Band” family. Let’s take a closer look. Read more: The best fitness trackers Huawei Watch Fit design Credit: Kris Carlon / Android Authority The Huawei Watch Fit will instantly appeal to those who like Huawei’s smartwatch offerings but aren’t into the bulkiness of them. I’m a fan of a chunky watch personally, but the diminutive appeal of the Huawei Watch Fit is not lost on me. Beyond the eye-catching Cantaloupe Orange you see here, the Watch Fit also comes in Sakura Pink, Graphite Black, and Mint Green. The diminutive appeal of the Huawei Watch Fit is not lost on me. I’m less enamored by the unoriginal styling. It may lack creativity but will...