The discovery of “Wind Chess” reminded me of the story of the Prophet Joseph
On October 28, our veteran filmmaker Mohammad Reza Aslani gave a detailed interview to the film magazine “Film Stage” about the newly restored film “Chess of the Wind”.
Theater News Base: On October 28, our veteran filmmaker Mohammad Reza Aslani gave a detailed interview to the film magazine “Film Stage” about the newly restored film “Chess of the Wind”.
This part of the interview describes how the original version of the film was found.
* Your movie “Wind Chess” was missing for four decades after its initial release until your son found the original negative of the movie in an antique shop in Tehran. How did you react when you found out that your film was found?
Aslani: When I found out that the film had been found, this miraculous event reminded me of the story of Joseph and his father Jacob. For us in Iranian literature as well as in the Old Testament, Yousef is a symbol of beauty. He was lost for forty years and his father lost his sight.
We have a beautiful metaphor about Yusef’s scent for this film. In our poetry literature, there is a reference to how the smell of Joseph restored his father’s sight. I felt the same way when I saw the movie again.
“Wind Chess” directed and written by Mohammad Reza Aslani is a product of 1976 starring Fakhri Khorvash, Mohammad Ali Keshavarz and Shohreh Aghdashloo. The film was restored in 2020 by Bologna Cinematheque with the support of the Martin Scorsese Film Foundation and with funding from the George Lucas Foundation.