Chess of the Wind

Chess of the Wind (original title Shatranj-e Baad), directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani, is an Iranian film about an inheritance struggle within a mansion during the Qajar dynasty era. The film screened only once, at the 1976 Tehran International Film Festival, before being officially banned after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and considered lost for decades. The negatives were accidentally discovered by the director's son at a scrap dealer's shop in Tehran; Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project and the Bologna Cineteca carried out a six year restoration from the original 35mm negatives. The film holds a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and 94 on Metacritic. Who it's for: anyone curious about an Iranian classic considered lost for nearly half a century, accidentally rediscovered at a scrap dealer's shop and painstakingly restored. Who it's not for: those wanting to see the film in its original, unrestored state, since the version now available is the product of a six year restoration.