The Iranian film masterpiece "Chessboard of the Wind" (1976) was restored this year and participated in several film festivals. In fact, very few peop[Expand All]
The Iranian film masterpiece "Chessboard of the Wind" (1976) was restored this year and participated in several film festivals. In fact, very few people had seen it before! This film was selected for the Tehran International Film Festival in 1976 and a preview screening was held. Unfortunately, the screening was maliciously obstructed - the projector broke down and the film was also damaged. Later, the festival judges withdrew the video from the competition. Without any distributors willing to invest, the producers have never sent the video to any film festival or held any public screenings again. (It is said that famous filmmakers Henri Langlois, Rosselini and Sayerzere have seen it in some private screenings and praised it highly.) After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, this film was banned even more because of its non-Islamic content. Subsequently, the original negative was lost, and only one reviewed low-definition VHS version has been circulating in the market. More than forty years after its loss, the director's son unexpectedly discovered the 35mm negative and sound film of this movie at a flea market selling old costumes and accessories! He bought it immediately and sent it to France. The video was restored by the Film Foundation, and the process was personally supervised by the director and his daughter. The cinematographer of this film, Houshang Baharlou, also participated in the color grading process in person...[Collapse]
