Underplayed Gems

The Chess Game of the Wind (1976)

The Chess Game of the Wind poster
Original title
شطرنج باد
Directed by
Mohammad Reza Aslani
Genre
drama film, thriller film
Country
Iran
Runtime
1h 39m
Rating
7.1 of 10 from 41 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A wealthy woman dies in an old mansion. Her relatives come to fight over the inheritance and tensions turn violent.

slow-burntensebleakunsettlingvisually lushatmosphericbrooding

What happens

Chess of the Wind (Persian: شطرنج باد, romanized: Shatranj-e Baad), also titled The Chess Game of the Wind, is a 1976 Iranian film written and directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani. The film was screened only once before the 1979 revolution in Iran and was roundly condemned by film critics for its violence and homosexual themes, leading to an official ban by the Iranian government. The negative and all prints were thought to have been destroyed. The film negative was rediscovered by the director's children 38 years later in 2014, for sale in a Tehran junk shop. After an extensive restoration the film was re-released in 2020 to wide acclaim. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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