Screened publicly just once before it was banned and then lost for decades, this jewel of Iranian cinema can now take its place as one of the most singular works of the country’s New Wave.

A stylised murder mystery, Chess of the Wind unfolds in a candlelit mansion where a web of greed, violence, and betrayal ensnares the heirs to a family fortune as they vie for control of their recently deceased matriarch’s estate. An exquisitely controlled mood piece that erupts in a subversive final act in which class conventions, gender roles, and even time itself are upended with shocking ferocity.

Notes by David O’Mahony