A maverick and vocal heir to a huge fortune, a tall, dark-haired paraplegic woman is encircled by a group of human vultures who pull out every possible trick to rob her of both her wealth and her dignity. As she prepares herself to fight back, with her sinister relatives occupying her mansion, she finds it hard to trust anyone but herself in a maze of lies, greed and oppression.
A murder mystery with a distinctive atmosphere and style unlike any other film, Chess of the Wind unfolds inside a candlelit mansion, where a web of intrigue, violence, and betrayal ensnares potential heirs as they vie for control of their matriarch’s estate.
Banned by the Islamic Republic, the film was considered lost until 2014, when a print was found in a Tehran junk shop. Eventually saved by The World Cinema Foundation in a strikingly meticulous restoration, Chess of the Wind is a unique fusion of European modernism, gothic horror, and classical Persian art.
In his ambitious and ground-breaking masterpiece, Mohammad Reza Aslani crafts an exquisitely restrained mood piece that erupts into a subversive final act in which class conventions, gender roles, and time itself are upended with shocking ferocity. This jewel of Iranian cinema is without a doubt one of the most astonishing works of world cinema.

Considered one of the most refined voices of Iranian cinema and an influential figure in New Wave poetry in Iran, Mohammad Reza Aslani is a multifaceted writer, director, documentarist and poet best known for his exceptional feature debut, Chess of the Wind.

He studied painting at University of Tehran and graduated from the Technical School of Television and Cinema. His controversial thriller Chess of the Wind was banned and presumed lost for decades after its initial release in 1976. After a long and unsuccessful search through international film archives, a copy of the film was eventually found in a Tehran junk shop in 2014. This copy was then smuggled out of the country and restored by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation for the Cannes International Film Festival, reintroducing this long-neglected triumph of world cinema to audiences across the globe.