Capital Celluloid 2020 — Day 89: Sat Oct 10

 Chess Of The Wind (Aslani, 1976): BFI Player, 3pm

 


64th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (7th - 18th October 2020) DAY4

Every day (from October 7th to October 18th) I will be selecting the best London Film Festival each day that you can catch on the BFI Player service. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need.

Chess Of The Wind review: A rich matriarch has died and the battle lines of inheritance are drawn between her disabled daughter and second husband (rumoured to dabble in witchcraft). As the paranoid, hothouse atmosphere builds – and the murky basement with its jars of acid is revealed – murder seems inevitable. Aslani’s chilling, decadent family thriller is told with unsettling control and restraint. The beautifully composed interiors inspired by classic Persian miniatures become the home to horror in a world where disembodied hands express as much as faces. Sabotaged, suppressed and banned, with its negatives lost for decades, Chess of the Wind almost disappeared from the face of world cinema. With this new restoration, our perception of Iranian film will never be the same again. Robin Baker

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