Chess of the Wind [Shatranj-e baad] (Mohammad Reza Aslani, 1976)

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Chess of the Wind [Shatranj-e baad] (Mohammad Reza Aslani, 1976)

#1 Post by cdnchris » Sun May 23, 2021 3:24 pm

I see this one is only mentioned in a few threads about recent restorations so just had to throw some more attention towards it.

I went into this one entirely blind, only aware of the story behind it. The story goes that the film was only screened once in Tehran and was met with a harsh critical reaction and dismissive audience. It was apparently accused of being too "arty" and European, even confusing. It might have had a second screening, though the stories around that suggest it was to an empty theater. The film was then banned after the revolution.

I'm not surprised this ended up being banned (one scene in particular stands out) but I'm a little perplexed by the audience reaction. Of course I'm completely oblivious and ignorant of what Iranian audiences would have expected from any film in 1976, but this is a pretty effective gothic/mystery/thriller, stylishly done. There are some surreal moments in it, and the pace is a bit slow (not that slow, though, and it really picks up in the last half), but it's otherwise a fairly straight-forward drama/mystery, even if I was a little lost at the beginning (the film just throws you into everything).

I unfortunately can't remember the names of the characters (and the IMDB info doesn't give the names of the characters) but the film centers around the recent death of a wealthy woman and the inheritance that comes with that. Her daughter was supposed to receive the bulk of it, or does receive all of it (this is where I was a bit confused), but she has to deal with her step-father, who apparently married her mother just before her death, and it's clear it was for her money. He's a real piece-of-shit human being, looking to get the wealth and the house (apparently he was even able to sign the deed of the house over to himself) by any means, and his nephews are there as well, looking to cash in. The daughter is a paraplegic, stuck in a wheel chair (constant doctor visits suggest her health is also fragile), and seen as weak, so the men in her life, even a possible suitor, are shoving themselves in there and walking all over her to get at this money, with the end goal being they will use it to invest in real-estate and then rent to the English in order to gain some prestige. The daughter is of course angry around all of this and when it's clear that, as a woman, she's not going to find any help she comes up with a plan, with her handmaiden, to make sure she gets everything that is rightfully hers.

It's not super hard to see where the film is going, but I'll stop there because part of the fun is how everything unfolds, and it shares its DNA with another famous film that I'll name in spoilers below because just saying the name will give away a lot, though not everything. The film is obviously looking at the treatment of women in a heavily masculine world, and there is also some perspective on the class divide, the film jumping to scenes outside of the house featuring the servants doing their work/chores, talking about their well-off employers (the conclusion also shows how a couple of characters plan to get around the divide in their relationship). And it's effective handling this subject matter but it's also a very playful film that is still quite a bit of fun on a surface level, and still has a number of surprises even after you figure out what film it's riffing off of.

The acting is excellent and there are a number of wonderful sequences, but the conclusion is really like some sort of nightmare come to life. Shohreh Aghdashloo plays the handmaiden in this film and there is this shot of her during a key sequence near the end that is just incredible; I feel in any other movie that got to stick around longer than two screenings this shot alone would have made anyone a star. She has developed a good career outside of Iran and even has an Oscar nomination under her belt, so it worked out (I guess), but it's such an incredible and haunting shot and it's an absolute shame it got lost.

I feel Criterion would give this one a physical release, but I'm sure it will show up on their channel sometime in the near-future. It's a spectacular film.
SpoilerShow
The film this one owes a lot to is, of course, Les diaboliques.

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Re: Chess of the Wind [Shatranj-e baad] (Mohammad Reza Aslani, 1976)

#2 Post by What A Disgrace » Sun May 23, 2021 3:43 pm

I imagine it'll pop up in one of those World Cinema Project sets. Hopefully sooner than later, as the movie you've described sounds like a major work.

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Re: Chess of the Wind [Shatranj-e baad] (Mohammad Reza Aslani, 1976)

#3 Post by cdnchris » Sun May 23, 2021 5:22 pm

It more than likely will, which is a bit of a shame as it could get a decent special edition on its own, but as long as it gets something. The wait could be killer for the new set.

Reading a bit more online it sounds like the European/Western vibe it gave off didn't gel at the time with audiences. Passolini came to mind every so often while watching it, so I guess I could see it, and the plotting is more Hitchcockian, which isn't a spoiler. I'm not familiar with Iranian cinema out of a handful of films (most of them being the Koker trilogy) so that's why nothing really stood out here.

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