Chess of the Wind (Great Restorations)

Chess of the Wind (Great Restorations)

Introduction to the film and its restoration | in English | about 15’

Chess of the Wind

Shatranj-e bad Iran 1976 | Mohammad Reza Aslani | vostEN | 100’ | digital | Cast : Fakhri Khorvash, Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Shohreh Aghdashloo

► 4K restoration by The World Cinema Project, Cineteca di Bologna; funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation

In this period drama with Gothic touches, the first lady of a noble house dies, leaving a paralyzed girl as her heir. This creates conflict between those left behind over her inheritance.

« Seldom do we see a cinematic resurrection as astonishing as that of Chess of the Wind. Met with critical hostility when it premiered in Tehran in 1976, the ravishing period drama was banned and then considered lost. Now restored under the aegis of Scorsese’s World Cinema Project, it enters theaters this week as that unlikeliest of revelations: a nearly 50-year-old masterpiece virtually unknown till now. » (RogerEbert.com)

Followed by:

The House is Black

Khaneh siah ast Iran 1963 | Forugh Farrokhzad | documentaire | vostEN | 22’ | digital

► Restored by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, Ecran Noir, in collaboration with Ebrahim Golestan; additional support provided by Genoma Films and Mahrokh Eshaghian

The black-and-white short captures daily life in a leper colony while a voice-over provides poetic commentary.

« Presages in 22 minutes the entirety of the Iranian New Wave and the international quasi-genre of “poetic nonfiction.” It’s a blackjack of a movie, soberly documenting the village of lost ones with an astringently ethical eye, while on the soundtrack Farrokhzad reads her own poetry in a plaintive murmur – this in the same year as Vivre sa Vie and La Jetée. Chris Marker has been a passionate fan, as has Kiarostami, whose The Wind Will Carry Us owes its title and climactic verse to Farrokhzad. » (The Village Voice)